SKETCH  OF  THE  KI^jprjJfOFP^TVf 


JAN  30  1918 


RELIGIOUS  SOCIETY  OP  FRIENDS: 


THEIR 


DOCTRINES  AND  DISCIPLINE. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

ASSOCIATION  OF  FRIENDS  FOR  THE  DIFFUSION  OF  RELIGIOUS 
AND  USEFUL  KNOWLEDGE, 
109  North  Tejtth  Street. 


NOTE. 


The  contents  of  the  following  work,  with  the  exception  of  the 
last  article,  have  been  selected  from  a  volume  entitled,  "  Tracts 
Illustrating  the  History,  Doctrine  and  Discipline  op  the 
Society  op  Friends,"  published  in  London  in  1851. 


CONTENTS. 


Introductory  Remarks                                            Page  3 

The  Eise  of  the  Society  of  Friends   9 

Doctrines  of  the  Society  of  Friends   27 

The  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Teaching  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

as  held  by  the  Society  of  Friends   51 

Essay  on  the  Discipline  of  the  Primitive  Christians  and  on 

that  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  by  J.  J.  Gurney   63 


(2) 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 


Two  centuries  have  passed  away  since  the  first 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  believed  them- 
selves called  upon  to  bear  a  conspicuous  testimony 
by  deed  as  well  as  word  to  the  purity  and  spirituality 
of  the  Christian  religion.  Reverently  accepting  the 
doctrines  of  Christ  and  His  apostles  in  their  compre- 
hensive fulness  as  recorded  in  the  New  Testament, 
they  felt  that  they  could  not  rest  in  a  mere  profes- 
sion even  of  these  blessed  truths.  Their  souls  longed 
for  the  possession  of  the  substance,  even  reconcilia- 
tion with  the  Father,  and  communion  with  Him  by 
His  own  Spirit  through  the  one  living  Saviour,  Ad- 
vocate, and  Intercessor  for  us,  Christ  Jesus.  That 
which  they  sought  was  not  to  be  found  in  outward 
observances.  Their  spiritual  necessities  required 
spiritual  refreshments.  The  ancient  sacrifices  and 
cei'emonies  under  the  Law,  though  expressly  insti- 
tuted by  Divine  authority,  were  given  but  for  a 
season,  to  be  fulfilled  and  ended  by  Christ.  The  new 
covenant  of  life  and  salvation  was  not  in  these.  Much 
less  could  they  find  it  in  those  outward  rites  and  ob- 
servances, which,  having  no  such  Divine  institution, 
had  been  intruded  by  human  authority  into  the  pro- 
fessing Church,  spoiling  it  of  its  ancient  simplicity 
and  beauty,  and  gradually  usurping  the  place  of 

(iii) 


iv  INTRODUCTORY    R  E  xM  A  R  K  S  . 

Christ  Himself  in  the  hearts  of  His  professed  dis- 
ciples. 

Without  unduly  anticipating  the  contents  of  the 
ensuing  pages,  the  serious  attention  of  the  reader 
may  not  be  improperly  invited  to  the  particular  con- 
sideration of  one  or  two  points  that  more  especially 
distinguished  them  from  others  of  the  Christian 
name.  Notwithstanding  the  diversities  that  prevail 
among  other  denominations  of  professing  Christians 
as  to  the  mode  of  Divine  worship,  all  seem,  in  prac- 
tice, at  least,  to  unite  in  this,  that  this  solemn  act 
consists  in  a  course  (mostly  a  prescribed  course)  of 
certain  vocal  exercises,  such  as  prayer,  singing,  and 
preaching ;  and  few,  if  any,  would  admit  that  a  con- 
gregation could  meet  to  any  profit,  or  could  long  sub- 
sist, without  regular  exercise  of  this  description. 
Again,  it  is  almost  universally  assumed  in  practice, 
that  in  the  Christian  Church,  with  a  view  to  prevent 
confusion,  and  to  ensure  a  regular  performance  of 
these  services,  the  ministry  in  the  congregation  must 
be  confined  to  one  or  two  individuals,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  others;  that  these  must  statedly  perform 
the  allotted  exercises,  irrespective  of  the  possibility 
of  the  restraint  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  the  want  of 
His  renewed  qualification ;  and  that  provision  must 
be  made  by  means  of  schools,  or  colleges,  or  other 
means  of  human  appointment,  for  training  and  qua- 
lifying a  regular  succession  of  such  ministers.  And 
some  may  be  ready  confidently  to  ask  how,  assuming 
ministry  to  be  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the 
Christian  Church,  order  could  be  maintained,  or  an- 


INTRODUCTORY   R  E  31  A  R  K  S  .  V 

arcliy  avoided,  or  an  adequate  supply  kept  up,  Tvitli- 
out  such  provisions  as  have  been  just  adverted  to. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  these  are  subjects  of  in- 
calculable importance ;  and  we  believe  there  are  not 
a  few  who,  with  the  Xew  Testament  in  their  hands, 
are  ready  to  acknowledge  that  the  modern  system  is 
not  in  conformity  with  the  spirit  or  practice  of  pri- 
mitive Christianity,  who  nevertheless  think  them- 
selves bound  to  maintain  it,  simply  from  the  idea  of 
its  present  necessity  or  expediency.  If  the  reader 
be  one  of  this  number,  he  will  be  prepared  to  admit 
that  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  on  these  subjects,  characterized  as  they  are 
by  their  peculiar  simplicity,  and  confirmed  by  the 
experience  of  two  centuries,  are  at  least  deserving 
of  his  attentive  consideration. 

This  people  affirm  that  the  worship  of  God,  who 
is  a  Spirit,"  is  essentially  spiritual.  They  do  not  con- 
sider that  the  communion  of  the  invisible  and  spi- 
ritual soul  of  man  with  its  unseen  Creator  is  con- 
fined to  outwardly  sensible  communications ;  or  that 
outward  rites  or  outward  words  are  necessary  to  it. 
Hence,  they  feel  bound  in  their  assemblies  for  Divine 
worship  reverently  to  wait  upon  the  Lord  in  solemn 
stillness,  desiring  to  be  individually  gathered  in 
spirit  unto  Christ  their  Saviour,  Prophet,  and  High 
Priest,  and  through  Him  to  find  access  by  the  one 
Spirit  unto  the  Father to  worship  Him  "in  spirit 
and  in  truth,"  in  reverent  humiliation  of  soul,  in  the 
resignation  of  the  will,  and,  if  it  may  be,  with  the 
humble  tribute  of  prayer  and  praise.  But  they  do 
1* 


vi  INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

not  limit  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  to  one  particu- 
lar mode.  They  believe  that  this  spiritual  worship 
may  be  with  words,  as  well  as  without  them,  and 
they  are  far  from  excluding  the  vocal  exercises  of 
prayer  or  thanksgiving,  provided  all  be  offered  in  the 
fresh  quickening  of  the  Lord's  Spirit. 

Again,  they  believe  that  Christ  instituted  among 
his  followers  no  such  distinction  as  that  of  Clergy 
and  Laity.  They  affirm  that  all  true  believers  are 
consecrated  into  the  class  of  His  "  royal  priesthood 
and  that  the  "  manifestation  of  His  Spirit  is  given  to 
every  one  to  profit but  that  no  manifestation  that 
is  not  of  His  Spirit  can  profit  in  His  Church. 
Hence,  while  on  the  one  hand  they  feel  bound  to 
deny  all  ministry  that,  being  without  the  Spirit,  is 
dead,  barren,  and  lifeless,  they  dare  not,  on  the  other, 
put  any  check  upon  the  full  and  free  exercise  of  any 
ministry  that  is  really  exercised  "  in  the  ability  which 
God  giveth."  In  their  assemblies  none  are  restrained 
from  exercising  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit ;  while  a  care 
is  maintained  that  all  should  act  as  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Christ,  not  in  their  own  will  and  time,  but 
according  to  His  guidance  and  the  sufficiency  that  is 
from  Him,  that  all  things  in  His  Church  should  be 
done  "  decently  and  in  order,''  to  His  praise.  Their 
belief  that  the  gifts  are  freely  bestowed  by  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church  according  to  His  will,  irrespec- 
tive of  human  limitations  and  degrees  of  order,  leads 
them  into  liberty ;  their  belief  that  they  must  be  ex- 
ercised in  subjection  to  His  government  preserves 
them  from  anarchy. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  vii 

They  have  no  colleges  for  educating  ministers,  be- 
cause they  believe  that  the  qualification  for  the  min- 
istry is  not  human  learning,  but  a  spiritual  gift; 
they  have  no  funds  provided  for  their  maintenance, 
because  they  believe  that  this  gift  is  free,  and  that, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  being  freely  re- 
ceived it  ought  to  be  freely  dispensed. 

The  reader  who  duly  reflects  upon  these  prin- 
ciples, which  have,  under  the  Divine  blessing  (though 
often  in  much  weakness  and  infirmity),  been  carried 
into  practice  for  two  centuries,  will  probably  be  led 
to  inquire  further  into  the  origin,  principles,  and 
practices  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  The  following 
pages  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  some  assistance  to  such  an 
inquiry.  It  will  be  seen  that  they  were  originally 
written  as  separate  tracts ;  a  circumstance  which  will 
excuse  the  want  of  strict  connexion  and  occasional 
repetition. 


THE  KISE 


OF 

THE  SOCIETY  OF  FEIENDS. 


The  religious  Society  of  Friends  dates  its  rise  from 
about  the  year  1647.  This  was,  in  England,  a 
period  in  which  many  of  the  props,  on  which  men 
had  long  been  accustomed  to  lean,  both  in  civil  and 
religious  matters,  were  shaken  or  removed.  The 
fears,  troubles,  and  heart-stirring  thoughts  connected 
with  the  domestic  commotions  which  then  prevailed 
in  the  nation,  led  many  into  a  deep  search  as  to  the 
grounds  of  their  opinions,  and  the  real  stability  of 
their  religious  hopes;  but  the  movements  of  this 
period  must  be  traced  to  a  much  earlier  date.  To  go 
to  their  source,  we  must  at  least  go  back  to  the  days 
of  the  enlightened  Wickliffe  and  the  persecuted  Lol- 
lards ;  but  this  would  lead  us  beyond  our  present 
space. 

The  English  Eeformers  who  fled  into  Switzerland, 
during  the  persecution  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary, 
and  who  returned  from  their  exile  on  the  accession 
of  Elizabeth  to  the  throne,  were  far  from  being  con- 

(9) 


10 


THE    RISE    OF  THE 


tent  witli  the  point  to  which  the  Queen  allowed  the 
Reformation  to  be  carried.  Many  of.  them,  how- 
ever, appeared  to  satisfy  their  consciences  with  the 
hope,  that  they  were  doing  more  good  by  taking- 
offices  under  her  auspices,  than  by  leaving  them  to 
be  filled  by  those  who  were  less  attached  than  them- 
selves to  the  Protestant  cause ;  but  others  could  not 
be  persuaded  thus  to  compromise  their  religious  judg- 
ment, and  chose  rather  to  remain  without  office  and 
profit  than  to  conform  to  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
which  the  Queen  had  chosen  to  impose  upon  the 
nation.  Uniformity  in  matters  of  religion  was  at 
this  time  the  favourite  doctrine  of  all  parties,  and 
was  hardly  less  espoused  by  Elizabeth  than  it  had 
been  by  her  sister  Mary ;  for  very  severe  laws  were 
made  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  under  which  both 
Papists  and  Protestant  Dissenters  were  cruelly  per- 
secuted, and  some  of  them  even  put  to  death.  A  re- 
ligious movement,  deep  and  inward,  though  not  very 
active,  was  going  on  during  the  subsequent  reign  of 
James  the  First ;  and  it  may  fairly  be  said,  that  the 
continued  denial  to  the  people  of  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment  in  religious  matters,  and  the  unchris- 
tian efforts  which  were  made  by  his  successor,  Charles 
the  First,  to  force  conscience,  contributed  not  a 
little  to  that  convulsion  of  the  State,  in  which  the 
monarchy  was  for  a  time  overthrown. 

The  proceedings  of  Archbishop  Laud  and  his 
party,  during  the  reign  of  this  monarch,  in  endea- 
vouring to  assimilate  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Eng- 
land more  closely  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  excited  a 


SOCIETY    OF    JR TENDS. 


11 


strong  feeling  of  revulsion  in  tlie  minds  of  many 
Episcopalians,  and  led  the  way  for  that  extraordinary 
ascendancy  which  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  suddenly 
obtained  in  England  in  those  days.  There  was 
among  this  people,  at  that  time,  much  high  religious 
profession,  united  with  the  bitterest  intolerance  to- 
wards all  who  could  not  accept  their  Directory  on 
matters  of  worship  and  other  outward  services. 
There  was,  however,  also  to  be  seen  much  deep  and 
practical  religious  conviction,  and  in  not  a  very  few 
an  earnest  search  after  truth.  The  strictness  of  their 
lives,  and  the  earnestness  of  their  preaching,  doubt- 
less recommended  them  to  the  more  serious  part  of 
the  nation,  of  various  classes;  but,  in  connexion 
with  the  power  which  they  obtained,  it  is  evident 
that  they  sought  primarily  the  absolute  ascendancy 
of  their  own  church  polity  and  doctrine.  Though 
they  had  strongly  denounced,  in  their  own  case, 
popish  and  prelatical  imposition  upon  conscience,  yet 
they  did  not  scruple,  in  the  case  of  others,  to  attempt 
to  rule  in  that  seat  of  God ;  and  they  were  no  less 
ready  than  their  predecessors  to  punish  those  who 
could  not  bow  down  to  their  authority.  Thus  it  was 
evident  that  presbyter  and  prelate  alike  sought  to  be 
lords  over  God's  heritage,  and  that  amidst  the  ear- 
nest discussions  respecting  church  government  and 
the  forms  of  religious  worship,  the  essential,  experi- 
mental work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  heart,  and 
the  true  liberty  of  the  Gospel,  were  in  great  measure 
overlooked.  All  the  chief  religious  parties  of  the 
day  so  mistook  the  nature  of  Christianity,  as  to  en- 


12 


THE    RISE    OF  THE 


deavour  to  obtain  their  objects  by  the  power  of  the 
sword ;  and  many  of  the  individuals  who  were  ex- 
tensively engaged  in  the  enterprise  of  reformation, 
if  sincere  in  the  outset,  became  corrupted  by  suc- 
cess, and  sought  selfish  ends  under  the  guise  of  pa- 
triotism and  religion. 

There  was,  however,  a  large  number  who  were 
constant  and  earnest  in  their  desire  for  the  establish- 
ment of  truth  and  righteousness ;  and  these,  grieved 
with  the  versatility  and  hypocrisy  which  prevailed, 
were  led  into  a  deeper  search  into  things  within  them 
and  around  them.  Many  prayers  ascended  to  Heaven 
from  individuals  and  from  little  communities,  scat- 
tered about  in  various  places,  that  they  might  see 
more  clearly  the  path  in  which  they  ought  to  walk, 
and  be  strengthened  to  follow  Christ  wherever  he 
should  lead  them.  The  deep  cries  of  these,  made 
in  living  faith,  were  not  in  vain  :  they  came  to  see 
that  they  had  been  too  much  engaged  in  discussions 
about  outward  forms,  and  had  too  much  depended 
upon  man  in  the  great  work  of  religion,  and  for  its 
establishment  in  the  earth.  They  continued  stead- 
fast in  the  great  doctrine,  that  the  door  of  God's 
mercy  was  freely  opened  to  sinful  man,  through  the 
propitiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ  alone;  but  their  minds 
were  awakened  to  see  themselves  and  the  condition 
of  things  around  them  in  a  new  light.  The  require- 
ments of  a  disciple ;  the  denial  of  self ;  the  trans- 
forming power  of  the  Spirit ;  the  restoration  into  the 
divine  presence,  that  they  might  really  become  sons 
of  God  and  brethren  of  Christ;  were  things  which, 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


13 


thougli  tliey  liad  heard  them  discoursed  about,  now 
took  possession  of  their  minds  with  the  force  and 
energy  of  new  truths ;  and  as  they  dwelt  upon  them, 
they  were  led  to  believe  that  there  was  to  be  known 
a  fuller  deliverance  from  sin,  and  a  closer  union  with 
Christ,  than  they  had  hitherto  found.  They  were 
told,  indeed,  that  a  state  was  not  to  be  attained  here, 
in  which  man  walks  before  the  Lord  in  entire  alle- 
giance to  his  will ;  and  therefore  without  disobeying 
him;  but  they  believed,  that  though  man's  know- 
ledge is  imperfect,  and  though  from  weakness  he 
may  slip  or  fall,  yet  his  heart  may  nevertheless  be  so 
renewed  by  grace,  as  that  his  love  shall  be  pure  and 
simple,  and  his  eye  being  single  to  the  Lord,  his 
whole  mind  may  be  enlightened  to  see  trul}^  and  to 
pursue  steadily  the  things  which  belong  unto  his 
peace.  They  felt  and  deeply  lamented  how  short 
they  were  of  this  experience,  which  they  believed  to 
be  the  privilege  of  the  Christian,  and  they  sought 
help  from  many  quarters ;  for  nothing  less  than  this 
experience  could  satisfy  their  inward  cravings,  or 
their  thirst  after  the  knowledge  of  the  very  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus.  These  seeking  people  found,  how- 
ever, but  little  help  from  those  who  were  esteemed 
the  most  eminent  religious  teachers,  and  they  came 
to  place  less  and  less  dependence  upon  man,  and  to 
look  to  the  Lord  only  for  light  and  strength. 

Such  appears  to  have  been,  with  different  degrees 
of  clearness,  the  state  of  many  minds  in  various 
parts  of  England,  when  George  Fox,  who  had  him- 
self been  similarly  led  and  deeply  instructed  in  the 

9 


14 


RISE    OF  THE 


scliool  of  Christ  J  went  fortli  preaching  the  truth,  as 
he  had  found  it  to  his  own  peace.  Many  received 
his  message  as  the  expression  of  their  deepest 
thoughts,  and  as  an  answer  to  their  fervent  prayers. 
He  preached  Christ  crucified  for  the  sins  of  all  men ; 
opening  the  way  of  reconciliation  to  all  who  believe 
in  him,  and  receive  him  into  their  hearts  as  their 
rightful  Lord ; — Christ  come  in  the  flesh,  and  Christ, 
according  to  his  promise,  come  in  the  Spirit,  to  be 
with  his  disciples  in  their  individual  and  collective 
capacity  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

These  were  the  fundamental  doctrines  which 
Greorge  Fox  preached;  and  it  was  no  way  in  dis- 
paragement of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  having  come  in 
the  flesh,  that  he  dwelt  more  conspicuously  upon  that 
of  Christ  being  come  in  the  Spirit,  seeing  the  lattei 
was  that  which,  in  the  professing  church,  Satan  had 
been  most  busy  in  restricting  and  perverting.  "  I  was 
glad,"  says  George  Fox,  ^'when  the  Lord  God,  and 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  sent  me  forth  into  the  world, 
to  preach  his  everlasting  gospel  and  kingdom,  that  I 
was  commanded  to  turn  people  to  that  inward  light, 
spirit,  and  grace,  b}^  which  all  might  know  their  sal- 
vation and  their  way  to  God,  even  that  Divine  Spirit 
which  would  lead  them  into  all  truth."  Christ 
dwelling  in  the  heart  by  faith,  ruling  there,  and  sub- 
jecting everything  to  himself  by  the  power  of  his 
spirit,  was  the  experimental  knowledge  to  which 
George  Fox  called  men.  This,  he  declared,  was  the 
state  of  liberty  which  Christ  had  promised  to  give  to 
his  followers,  and  which  they  only  know  who  believe 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS 


15 


in  and  accept  tliat  "  liglit^  spirit,  and  grace/'  wliich 
convicts  of  sin,  and  leads  through  deep  repentance 
and  living  faith  into  righteousness.  The  Lord  Jesus 
promised  to  be  "  with  his  disciples  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."  And  these  words,  in  George 
Fox's  view,  referred  to  his  spiritual  presence  in  the 
soul,  as  the  teacher,  bishop  and  prophet  of  his 
people;  superseding  all  the  Jewish  priesthood,  and 
excluding  all  those  corrupt  imitations  of  it,  by  which 
man,  in  various  ages,  had  sought  to  exalt  himself, 
and  to  evade  that  spiritual  rule  of  Christ,  to  which 
the  flesh  and  the  devil  ever  were,  and  still  are,  so 
strongly  opposed. 

He  travelled  unweariedly  throughout  England, 
from  place  to  place,  calling  men  to  repentance,  and 
to  come  to  God  through  Christ  their  Saviour,  who 
had  died  for  them,  and  who,  by  his  Spirit  within 
them,  was  enlightening,  convicting,  and  seeking  to 
convert  them.  There  were  many  who  heard  this  call 
with  gladness  of  heart,  and  who  came  to  sit  under 
Christ's  teaching,  and  to  learn  in  all  humiHty  in  his 
school.  These,  when  deserted  by  kindred  and 
friends,  and  persecuted  on  every  hand,  yet  not  for- 
saken by  their  gracious  Lord,  felt  that  it  was 
"  enough  for  the  disciple  to  be  as  his  Master."  And 
indeed  their  sufferings  were  grievous  and  long.  For 
when  the  Presbyterians  had  been  superseded  by 
those  who  had  complained  so  heavily  of  church 
tyranny,  and  who  had  spoken  so  well  of  liberty  of 
conscience,  and  of  the  evils  of  state  impositions  in 
religious  matters,  these  were  not  proof  against  the 


16 


RISE    OF  THE 


temptation  of  power :  it  was  soon  apparent  that  they 
also,  but  too  generally,  loved  the  uppermost  seats 
in  the  synagogues,  and  to  be  called  of  men,  Kabbi/' 
They  were  ready  not  only  to  take  the  pulpits  of  the 
ejected  ministers,  but  also  to  extort  from  others,  who 
conscientiously  differed  from  them,  that  forced  main- 
tenance for  preaching  which  had  been  galling  to 
many  of  themselves,  when  it  was  imposed  by  pre- 
latical  or  presbyterian  authority.  It  is  due  to  the 
cause  of  truth  as  maintained  by  the  early  Friends, 
to  remark  that  they  upheld  liberty  of  conscience,  not 
only  when  suffering  under  persecution,  but  also  when 
they  were  raised  to  power  in  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Those  who  united  with  George  Fox  in  his  views 
of  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Church,  and  in  its 
individual  members,  and  who  believed  in  his  spiritual 
guidance  and  teaching,  could  not  conform  to  the  cus- 
tomary modes  of  worship.  They  met  together  to 
worship  God,  who  is  a  spirit,  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
They  could  not  offer  to  him  words  which  did  not 
truly  express  their  feelings.  They  believed  that,  in 
true  worship,  all  acts  must  be  performed  in  the  abase- 
ment of  self,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  When  assembled,  they  were  often  strength- 
ened and  comforted  together  in  silent  waiting  before 
the  Lord;  whilst,  individually,  they  breathed  their 
secret  aspirations  unto  God,  and  realized  that  Christ 
was  amongst  them  by  his  Spirit,  uniting  their  hearts 
together  in  mutual  love  to  Him  and  his  great  cause. 
And  when  any  amongst  them,  under  this  deep  feel- 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


17 


ing  of  true  worship,  were  constrained  in  spirit  to 
speak  tlie  word  of  exhortation,  prayer,  or  praise, 
they  gratefully  accepted  it,  as  from  the  Lord,  and  as 
drawing  to  him.  But  preconcerted  human  arrange- 
ments for  preaching  or  prayer ;  the  setting  up  of  one 
man  as  the  sole  teacher  in  the  congregation ;  the  es- 
tabHshment  of  a  body  of  such  ministers  by  the 
State;  the  imposition  of  their  maintenance  upon 
those  who  differed  from  them;  all  these  were,  in 
their  view,  violations  of  great  Christian  principles, 
interfering  with  Christ's  authority  and  government 
in  his  Church,  and  excluding  the  free  exercise  of  the 
various  gifts  bestowed  by  him  for  its  edification.  They 
admitted  freely  the  preaching  of  women,  as  well  as 
that  of  men,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  apos- 
tolic age,  when  sons  and  daughters  prophesied,  and 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was  poured  out  upon  "  ser- 
vants and  handmaidens,'^  not  limiting  the  number  in 
any  church. 

But  though  the  early  Friends  maintained  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  members  of  a  Christian  Church  to 
exercise  the  spiritual  gifts  with  which  they  were 
severally  endued,  they  held  that  the  authority  to 
judge  of  the  offered  services  of  the  members  rested 
with  the  assembled  body  of  the  church,  under  the 
direction  of  it^  spiritual  Head.  Entire  individual 
independence  in  society  is  a  contradiction  in  terms. 
In  the  primitive  church,  though  there  was  the  ut- 
most liberty  of  prophesying,  it  is  declared  that  "  the 
spirits  of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the  prophets, 
for  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace. 


18 


RISE   OF  THE 


as  in  all  the  cliurclies  of  the  saints/'  The  members 
were  subject  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of  God," 
and  this  subjection,  as  well  as  the  duty  of  caring  for 
and  watching  over  one  another  for  good,  were  clearly 
recognized  by  the  early  Friends,  and  formed  the  basis 
of  that  system  of  discipline  which  was  established 
among  them,  and  under  which,  as  members  of  the 
body,  they  enjoyed  so  large  a  measure  of  liberty  in 
connexion  with  true  order.  Under  this  discipline 
the  poor  were  cared  for,  the  education  of  the  youth 
was  promoted,  religious  efforts  were  used  to  reclaim 
the  wandering  and  delinquent  members,  and  when 
Christian  labour  had  failed,  the  ultimate  proceeding 
was  the  declaration  of  the  Society's  disunity  with  the 
offender  as  one  of  its  members.  This  proceeding 
carried  with  it  no  proscription  from  its  religious  wor- 
ship or  the  ordinary  intercourses  of  human  kindness, 
and  the  Society  was  open  at  all  times  to  receive  the 
disowned  person  again  into  fellowship,  on  the  evi- 
dence being  afforded  of  a  changed  mind.  As  the 
Society  declined  conscientiously  the  usual  rites  in 
connexion  with  marriages,  births,  and  deaths,  the  re- 
gistration of  these  events  was  under  the  special  care 
of  the  meetings  for  discipline.  After  two  hundred 
years  from  its  establishment,  the  original  system  of 
discipline  is  with  much  benefit  steadily  acted  upon, 
and  those  principles  which,  at  its  rise,  united  the 
members  of  the  Society  in  Christian  fellowship,  con- 
tinue to  be  upheld  by,  and  to  distinguish,  their  suc- 
cessors in  religious  profession. 

Although  the  early  Friends  maintained  that  imme- 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


19 


diate  spiritual  guidance  was  still  granted  to  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  they  fully  recognized  the  divine  au- 
thority of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  were  ever  ready 
to  have  their  doctrines  and  practices  tried  by  them : 
they  accepted  them  indeed  unequivocally,  as  given 
by  inspiration  of  Glod,  and  loved  and  valued  them  as 
the  genuine  records  of  his  dealings  with  his  creature 
man,  and  as  communicating  to  him  the  knowledge 
of  that  Gospel  covenant  by  which  life  and  immor- 
tality are  brought  to  light;  they  read  and  quoted 
them  freely,  referred  to  them  for  the  proof  of  the 
soundness  of  their  own  faith  and  doctrine,  and  re- 
commended them  strongly  to  the  perusal  of  others ; 
but  they  warned  men  against  fancying  themselves  in 
a  state  of  salvation,  because  of  possessing  a  know- 
ledge of  the  Scriptures,  whilst  remaining  strangers 
to  that  true  faith  in  Christ,  through  which  alone  they 
make  wise  unto  salvation. 

Believing  that  no  typical  or  ceremonial  rites  were 
appointed  by  Christ  or  his  xlpostles,  for  the  continual 
or  universal  observance  of  the  church,  and  in  con- 
nexion with  the  views  which  these  Christian  people 
entertained  of  the  spirituality  of  the  Gospel  dispen- 
sation, they  abstained  from  the  use  of  Water  Bap- 
tism, and  from  what  is  called  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  In  the  declaration  of  Christ,  that 
the  time  was  at  hand  when  "  they  that  worship  the 
Father,  must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth,'' 
they  saw  the  essential  abolition  of  all  ritual  religious 
services,  and  the  opening  of  that  real  spiritual  rela- 
tion and  intercourse  between  man  and  his  Creator, 


20 


RISE    OF  THE 


which  is  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Under 
the  Christian  dispensation  there  is  one,  and  but  one, 
baptism.  "  I  indeed/'  said  the  forerunner  of  Christ, 
"baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance;  but  he 
that  Cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes 
I  am  not  worthy  to  bear,  he  shall  baptize  you  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire  f  (Matt.  iii.  11).  This 
baptism  of  the  Spirit,  by  which  conversion  of  heart 
is  known,  and  the  repentant  sinner  is  brought, 
through  living  faith  in  Christ,  into  his  adopted 
family,  was  fully  asserted  by  the  early  Quakers )  as 
was  also  that  spiritual  communion  with  Christ,  whe- 
ther alone  or  in  fellowship  with  the  brethren,  in 
which  the  benefits  of  his  death,  resurrection,  and  as- 
cension are  appreciated  and  appropriated,  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  they  believed  to  be 
the  true  Supper  of  the  Lord,  —  the  spiritual  eating 
of  his  flesh  and  drinking  of  his  blood. 

The  imposition  of  tithes  on  the  people  they  es- 
teemed to  be  a  virtual  recognition  of  the  continued 
authority  of  Judaism,  and  a  practical  denial  that 
Christ  had  come,  had  superseded  the  whole  Judaical 
economy,  and  had  placed  upon  the  site  of  its  de- 
parted glories  the  spiritual  temple  in  which  he  was 
the  great  High  Priest.  He  said  to  his  disciples, 
"Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give.''  Those 
whom  he  sent  to  minister  to  his  flock  in  spiritual 
things,  were  entitled  to  partake  of  the  carnal  things 
of  those  who  received  their  message;  but  this  natu- 
ral claim  gave  no  authority,  they  asserted,  to  the  im- 
position of  payment.    Such  an  imposition,  in  the 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


21 


view  of  tlie  earlj  Friends,  was  utterly  opposed  to  the 
liberty  and  nobility  of  the  Christian  system,  and  was 
an  evidence  of  corruption  in  the  church  which  prac- 
tised it,  whatever  name  that  church  might  bear. 
They  called  men,  therefore,  to  come  out  of  it;  to 
leave  hireling  priests  and  mere  lip  services ;  and  to 
come  to  Christ  alone  for  the  supply  of  their  spiritual 
necessities.  They  believed  it  would  be,  on  their 
part,  a  virtual  recognition  of  an  unchristian  system, 
if  they  were  to  pay  the  ecclesiastical  demands  im- 
posed upon  them,  esteeming  it  a  case  in  which  they 
must  act  upon  the  apostoHc  rule,  ^^to  obey  Grod 
rather  than  men." 

In  obedience  also  to  Christ's  command,  "  Swear 
not  at  all,"  they  refused  all  judicial  as  well  as  other 
oaths;  and  in  like  accordance  with  Christ's  com- 
mands of  love  to  enemies,  and  of  not  returning'  evil 
for  evil,  they  believed  that  all  war  was  unlawful  to 
the  Christian.  They  did  not  seek  to  be  singular; 
but  in  the  maintenance  of  strict  truth,  and  the  avoid- 
ance of  pride  and  flattery,  they  were  led  into  great 
simplicity  in  their  dress,  manners,  and  language. 

These  various  testimonies  brought  much  con- 
tumely, from  the  high  professors  as  well  as  from  the 
profane,  upon  the  early  Friends.  They  were  said  to 
be  "  against  ministry,  magistracy  and  ordinances 
but  being  brought  into  an  entire  submission  to  what- 
ever, in  their  enlightened  consciences,  they  believed 
to  be  the  will  of  their  Lord,  they  acted  simply  and 
decidedly  upon  their  convictions  of  duty,  and  gave 
up  all  that  they  counted  dear,  in  faithful  allegiance 


22 


THE   RISE    OF  THE 


to  liim;  and  many  of  tliem  went  forth,  as  into  the 
highways  and  hedges,  to  proclaim  the  truth,  believ- 
ing themselves  called  to  invite  others  to  come  and 
enjoy  the  Gospel  liberty  which  they  had  found. 
Great  were  their  sufferings  when  the  high  professors 
of  Oliver  Cromwell's  days  had  the  rule  in  England ; 
and  still  greater  were  they  under  the  government  of 
the  second  Charles,  when  the  old  Episcopalian  was 
again  instated  in  power,  and  when  the  prominent 
members  of  "  Church  and  State seemed  to  vie  with 
each  other,  both  in  licentious  indulgence  and  in 
cruelty.  A  systematic,  legalized  effort  appears,  at 
this  period,  to  have  been  made  to  exterminate  the 
Quakers !  Cruel  laws  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  made  originally  against  the  Papists, 
were  revived,  especially  those  for  the  regular  attend- 
ance at  "  church,''  and  the  taking  of  the  oath  of  al- 
legiance, and  were  executed  with  severity  upon  the 
Quakers. 

The  Conventicle  Act,  passed  in  the  year  1664, 
prohibiting  the  meeting  together  of  five  or  more  per- 
sons for  the  exercise  of  religion,  in  other  manner 
than  is  allowed  by  the  liturgy  or  practice  of  the 
Church  of  England,  under  pain  of  being  committed 
to  prison  for  the  first  offence,  and  transported  beyond 
the  seas  for  the  second !  An  act  had  previously  been 
passed  against  those  who,  ^'  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
contrary  to  the  word  of  God,"  refused  to  take  an 
oath  before  a  lawful  magistrate ;  or  who  should,  "  by 
printing,  writing,  or  otherwise,  go  about  to  maintain 
and  defend,  that  the  taking  of  an  oath  is,  in  any  case 


SOCIETY    OF  TRIEXDS. 


23 


■whatsoever,  altogetlier  unlawful;"  and  this  offence 
was  in  the  Conventicle  Act  also  made  punishable  by 
transportation  I 

With  these  and  similar  legal  engines,  bishops, 
clergy,  judges,  and  magistrates,  with  the  aid  of  a 
host  of  wicked  informers,  betook  themselves  to  the 
work  of  hunting  down  these  Christian  people.  At 
one  period  more  than  4,200  of  them  were  shut  up 
in  close  and  noisome  prisons,  chiefly  for  meeting  to- 
gether to  worship  God  in  such  manner  as  they  be- 
lieved he  required  of  them,  and  for  refusing  to  swear, 
in  accordance  with  the  positive  command  of  their 
Lord  and  Saviour,  Swear  not  at  all."  When  the 
plague  was  raging  in  Loudon,  in  1665,  the  persecu- 
tors were  busily  engaged  in  committing  the  Quakers 
to  infected  prisons,  and  putting  them  on  board  ves- 
sels for  transportation.  Many  died  in  prison,  and 
out  of  fifty-five  put  on  board  one  vessel,  which  was 
designed  to  transport  them  to  the  colonies,  twenty- 
seven  died  of  the  plague,  rescued  from  the  hands  of 
cruel  men,  and,  as  we  reverently  believe,  taken  to  be 
with  their  Lord. 

All  the  trials,  however,  which  were  permitted  to 
attend  them  did  not  shake  their  faith  and  constancy. 
Though  the  world  hated  them,  they  were  heartily 
united  in  love  to  God  and  one  to  another.  At  the 
hazard  of  their  own  liberty,  those  who  were  at  large 
visited  their  brethren  who  were  in  prison,  and  min- 
istered to  them.  And  at  a  time  when  many  of  them 
were  sick  and  dying  from  their  confinement  in  filthy 
holes  and  dungeons,  a  large  number  of  their  friends 


24 


THE   RISE   OF  THE 


entreated,  that  if  their  afflicted  brethren  could  not 
otherwise  be  relieved,  they  themselves  might  be  al- 
lowed to  take,  body  for  body,  the  places  of  the  most 
suffering  prisoners.  The  government,  unmoved,  re- 
jected the  offer,  but  the  love  which  directed  it  was 
not  without  its  influence  on  the  minds  of  the  people, 
who  could  not  avoid  observing  how  largely  the  de- 
spised Quakers  evinced  the  charity,  as  well  as  the 
zeal  and  constancy,  of  the  primitive  Christians. 

Many  persons  were  led  by  the  treatment  and  by 
the  conduct  of  the  early  Friends  to  look  more  in- 
quisitively into  their  doctrines  and  manners :  they 
remembered  that,  heretofore,  the  way  of  truth  had 
been  everywhere  spoken  against;  and  when  they 
found  that  these  objects  of  general  reproach  were  in- 
dustrious in  their  callings  and  exemplary  in  all  the 
duties  of  social  life,  and  that  they  were  also  ready  to 
forsake  houses  and  lands,  parents  and  children, 
rather  than  disobey  what  they  believed  to  be  the  law 
of  Christ,  the  inquirers  were  often  led  to  conclude, 
that  these  much  despised  people  were  indeed  true 
followers  of  Him  who,  with  his  disciples,  was  not  of 
this  world,  and  therefore  the  world  hated  them. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  how  much  this  kind  of 
conviction,  not  founded  on  minute  reasoningj  but 
resting  chiefly  on  the  practical  and  internal  evidence 
for  the  truth,  whether  furnished  by  the  lives  of  its 
converts,  or  by  the  convictions  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
hearts  of  those  to  whom  it  is  preached,  has  marked 
the  course  through  which  Christ,  the  great  Head  of 
his  own  Church,  has,  in  all  ages,  thought  fit  to  gather 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


25 


his  people  out  of  the  world.  In  the  opening  of  the 
Gospel  day,  though  then  accompanied  by  extraordi- 
nary miracles,  there  was  much  of  this  process  to  be 
observed :  and  in  the  subsequent  revivals  of  divine 
truth,  whether  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  or  England, 
a  large  majority  of  the  converts  were  drawn  by  a 
sense  of  Truth, — by  finding  a  conformity  of  the  doc- 
trine preached,  both  with  Scripture  and  with  the  tes- 
timony of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  witness  for  God  in 
their  own  hearts. 

Many  among  the  early  converts  to  the  Truth,  who 
had  been  wise  and  great  in  this  world,  were  made 
willing  to  become  fools  in  the  sight  of  men.  In  deep 
humility  they  sat  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  seeking  to 
learn  of  that  promised  Comforter,  who,  the  Saviour 
declared,  should  "  teach  "  his  disciples  "  all  things,^' 
and  bring  to  their  "  remembrance  whatsoever  he  had 
said  unto  them."  Their  delight  was  in  the  law  of 
the  Lord,  and  they  gloried  in  nothing  save  in  the 
cross  of  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  was  crucified 
unto  them,  and  they  unto  the  world. 

They  found,  as  one  of  them  has  said,  that  it  was 
the  nature  of  true  faith  to  produce  a  holy  fear  of 
offending  God,  a  deep  reverence  for  his  precepts,  and 
a  most  tender  regard  to  the  inward  testimony  of  his 
Spirit.  They  proved  that  those  who  truly  believe, 
receive  Christ  in  all  his  ofi'ers  to  the  soul ;  and  that 
to  those  who  thus  receive  him,  is  given  power  to  be- 
come the  sons  of  God,  —  ability  to  do  whatsoever  he 
requires ;  strength  to  mortify  their  lusts,  control  their 
afiiections,  deny  themselves,  and  overcome  the  world 
3 


26    RISE  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS. 

in  its  most  enticing  appearances.  This  is  the  true 
bearing  of  that  blessed  cross  of  Christy  which,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  words,  is  the  great  and  essential 
characteristic  of  his  disciples.  That  the  early  Friends 
were  among  these  true  cross-bearing  disciples,  was 
abundantly  evidenced  before  the  world  in  their  life 
and  conversation ;  and  by  these,  as  well  as  by  their 
preaching,  they  held  out  to  mankind  the  apostolic 
invitation,  "  Come  and  have  fellowship  with  us ;  for 
truly  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ." 


DOCTRINES 

OF 

THE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS. 


The  original  and  immediate  ground  of  the  religious 
fellowsliip  of  the  early  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  was  a  union  of  sentiment  in  regard  to  Christ's 
inward  teaching,  a  doctrine  which  they  believed  to 
have  been  too  much  neglected  by  others.  They  were 
at  the  same  time  firm  believers  in  all  that  is  revealed 
in  Holy  Scripture  respecting  the  fall  of  man,  and  his 
redemption  through  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ ;  nor  would  they  have  allowed  that  any  one 
held  the  truth  who  denied  his  coming  in  the  flesh, 
or  the  benefit  derived  to  man  by  his  propitiatory 
sacrifice. 

Our  predecessors  not  only  recognized  the  Bible  as 
of  Divine  authority,  and  as  the  standard  of  their  re- 
ligious doctrines,  but  were  particularly  careful  to  ad- 
here to  Scripture  language  in  the  statement  of  them. 
They  adopted  no  creed  or  confession  of  faith  to  be 
subscribed  by  their  members,  yet  when  charged  with 
false  opinions^  they  did  not  hesitate  to  make  a  full 

(27) 


28 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


declaration  on  any  or  all  of  the  points  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

The  following  extracts  satisfactorily  prove  this. 
Issued  as  they  were  at  different  periods,  they  exhibit 
the  harmony  which  has  prevailed  in  our  religious 
Society,  in  reference  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, 
—  doctrines  which  are  designed,  through  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  operation  of  a  living 
faith,  to  promote  the  happiness  of  man  in  this  life, 
and  to  prepare  him  for  eternal  bliss  in  Christ's  hea- 
venly kingdom. 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


29 


EXTRACTS. 


We  own  and  believe  in  the  only  wise,  omnipotent, 
and  everlasting  God,  the  Creator  of  all  things  in 
heaven  and  earth,  and  the  Preserver  of  all  that  he 
hath  made ;  who  is  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever  • 
to  whom  be  all  honour  and  glory,  dominion,  praise, 
and  thanksgivings,  both  now  and  for  evermore  I 

And  we  own  and  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  be- 
loved and  only-begotten  Son,  in  whom  he  is  well 
pleased ;  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary ;  in  whom  we  have  redemp- 
tion through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins ; 
who  is  the  express  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the 
first-born  of  every  creature,  by  whom  were  all  things 
created  that  are  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  visible  and 
invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones  or  dominions, 
principalities  or  powers ;  all  things  were  created  by 
Him.  And  we  own  and  believe  that  He  was  made  a 
sacrifice  for  sin,  who  knew  no  sin,  neither  was  guile 
found  in  his  mouth ;  that  He  was  crucified  for  us  in 
the  flesh,  without  the  gates  of  Jerusalem ;  and  that 
He  was  buried,  and  rose  again  the  third  day  by  the 
power  of  his  Father,  for  our  justification ;  and  that 
He  ascended  up  into  heaven,  and  now  sitteth  at  the 
3=^ 


80 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


right  hand  of  God.  This  Jesus,  who  was  the  foun- 
dation of  the  holy  prophets  and  apostles/is  our  foun- 
dation ;  and  we  believe  that  there  is  no  other  foun- 
dation to  be  laid  but  that  which  is  laid,  even 
Christ  Jesus;  who  tasted  death  for  every  man,  shed 
his  blood  for  all  men,  and  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world :  according  as  Jolm  the  Baptist  tes- 
tified of  Him,  when  he  said,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.'' 
John  i.  29. 

We  believe  that  He  alone  is  our  Redeemer  and 
Saviour,  even  the  captain  of  our  salvation,  who  saves 
us  from  sin,  as  well  as  from  hell  and  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  destroys  the  devil  and  his  works;  He  is 
the  seed  of  the  woman  that  bruises  the  serpent's 
head,  to  wit,  Christ  Jesus,  the  Alpha  and  Omega, 
the  First  and  the  Last.  He  is  (as  the  Scriptures  of 
truth  say  of  him)  our  wisdom  and  righteousness,  justi- 
fication and  redemption ;  neither  is  there  salvation 
in  any  other,  for  there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men,  whereby  we  may  be  saved.  He 
alone  is  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls :  He 
is  our  Prophet,  whom  Moses  long  since  testified  of, 
saying,  "  A  Prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God  raise 
up  unto  you  of  your  brethren,  like  unto  me :  Him 
shall  ye  hear  in  all  things  whatsoever  He  shall  say 
unto  you:  and  it  shall  come- to  pass,  that  every  soul, 
which  will  not  hear  that  Prophet,  shall  be  destroyed 
from  among  the  people."  Acts  iii.  22,  23.  He  it  is 
that  is  now  come  in  Spirit,  "  and  hath  given  us  an 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


31 


understanding,  that  we  may  know  Ilim  that  is  true." 
He  rules  in  our  hearts  by  his  law  of  love  and  life, 
and  makes  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 
We  have  no  life,  but  by  Him ;  for  He  is  the  quick- 
ening Spirit,  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven, 
by  whose  blood  we  are  cleansed,  and  our  consciences 
sprinkled  from  dead  works,  to  serve  the  living  God. 
He  is  our  Mediator,  that  makes  peace  and  reconcilia- 
tion between  God  offended  and  us  offending;  He 
being  the  new  covenant  of  light,  life,  grace,  and 
peace;  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith.  This 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  heavenly  Man,  the  Emanuel, 
God  with  us,  we  all  own  and  believe  in ;  He  whom 
the  high  priest  raged  against,  and  said  He  had  spoken 
blasphemy ;  whom  the  priests  and  elders  of  the  J ews 
took  counsel  together  ngainst,  and  put  to  death ;  the 
same  whom  Judas  betrayed  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver, 
which  the  priests  gave  him  as  a  reward  for  his  trea- 
son ;  who  also  gave  large  money  to  soldiers  to  broach 
a  horrible  lie,  namely,  "  That  his  disciples  came  and 
stole  Him  away  by  night  whilst  they  slept."  After 
he  was  risen  from  the  dead,  the  history  of  the  acts 
of  the  apostles  sets  forth  how  the  chief  priests  and 
elders  persecuted  the  disciples  of  this  Jesus,  for 
preaching  Christ  and  his  resurrection.  This,  we  say, 
is  that  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom  we  own  to  be  our 
life  and  salvation. 

Concerning  the  Holy  Scriptures,  we  do  believe 
they  were  given  forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God 
through  the  holy  men  of  God,  who  (as  the  Scripture 
itself  declares,  2  Pet.  i.  21)  spake  as  they  were 


32 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  believe  they  are  to 
be  read,  believed,  and  fulfilled  (He  that  fulfils  them 
is  Christ) ;  and  they  are  "  profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness :  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works"  (2  Tim.  iii,  16,  17); 
and  are  able  to  make  wise  unto  salvation,  "  through 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus." 

George  Fox  and  others.  Address  to  the  Gov.  of  Barba- 
does,  1671. 


And  we  own  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  as  the  apostles  have  declared.  When  the 
fulness  of  time  was  come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son, 
made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  that  he  might 
redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we  might 
receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  Gal.  iv.  4,  5.  And  by 
the  grace  of  God,  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man. 
Heb.  ii.  9.  And  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins, 
according  to  the  Scriptures ;  and  that  he  was  buried 
and  rose  again,  according  to  the  Scriptures.  1  Cor. 
XV.  3,  4.  For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than 
that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ.  1  Cor.  iii.  11. 
And  so  we  believe  those  things  which  God  before 
hath  showed  by  the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets,  that 
Christ  should  suiTer,  and  he  hath  thus  fulfilled  it, 
and  is  risen  from  the  dead,  and  is  at  the  right  hand 
of  God,  who  is  alive  again,  and  lives  for  evermore, 
and  will  reward  every  man  according  to  his  deeds, 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


33 


and  is  the  Judge  both  of  the  quick  and  dead,  and 
his  sheep  now  hear  his  voice  and  follow  him,  as  in 
the  apostles'  days.  Acts  iii.  Rev.  i.  18.  Neither  is 
there  salvation  in  any  other  than  in  the  name  of 
Jesus;  for  there  is  none  other  name  given  under 
heaven  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved. 
Acts  iv.  12.  And  without  controversy,  great  is  the 
mystery  of  godliness :  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
justified  in  the  Spirit;  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto 
the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up 
into  glory.  1  Tim.  iii.  16.  And  it  is  the  Spirit  that 
beareth  witness,  because  the  Spirit  is  truth;  for 
there  are  three  that  bear  record  in  heaven,  the  Father, 
the  "Word,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  these  three  are 
one.  1  John  v.  And  now  let  none  be  ofi'ended,  be- 
cause we  do  not  call  them  by  those  unscriptural 
names  of  Trinity  and  three  persons,  which  are  not 
Scripture  words,  and  so  do  falsely  say  that  we  deny 
the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
three  are  one  that  bear  record  in  heaven,  &c.,  which 
three  we  own  with  all  our  hearts,  as  the  apostle  J ohn 
did,  and  as  all  true  Christians  ever  did,  and  now  do. 

We  believe  concerning  God  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, which  we  receive  and  embrace  as  the  most  au- 
thentic and  perfect  declaration  of  Christian  faith, 
being  indited  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  that  never 
errs  :  —  First,  that  there  is  one  God  and  Father,  of 
whom  are  all  things.  Secondly,  that  there  is  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  all  things  were  made 
(John  i.  and  chap.  xvii. ;  Rom.  ix.),  who  was  glorified 
c 


34 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


with  the  Father  before  the  world  began,  who  is  God 
over  all,  blessed  for  ever  (John  xiv.) :  that  there  is 
one  Holy  Spirit,  the  promise  of  the  Father  and  the 
Sou,  and  Leader  and  Sanctifier,  and  Comforter  of  his 
people.  1  John  v-  And  we  further  believe,  as  the 
Holy  Scriptures  soundly  and  sufficiently  express,  that 
these  three  are  one,  even  the  Father,  the  Word,  and 
the  Spirit.  And  in  the  fulness  of  time,  according 
to  the  promise  of  the  Father,  Christ  was  manifested 
in  the  flesh,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  tasted  death 
for  every  man,  is  risen  and  ascended,  and  sits  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  in  heaven,  and  is  the  only  Media- 
tor between  God  and  man  3  and  that  He  exercises  his 
prophetical,  priestly,  and  kingly  office  now  in  his 
church,  and  also  his  offices  as  a  Counsellor  and 
Leader,  Bishop,  Shepherd,  and  Mediator.  He  (to 
wit),  the  son  of  God,  He  exercises  these  offices  in 
his  household  of  faith,  whose  house  we  are,  that  are 
believers  *in  the  light,  and  by  faith  ingrafted  into 
Christ  the  Word,  by  whom  all  things  were  made ; 
and  so  are  heirs  of  eternal  life,  being  elected  in  Him 
before  the  world  began.  And  we  do  not  matter  if 
this  Jewish  spirit  saith  now  of  us,  as  it  did  formerly 
of  the  followers  of  Christ,  that  none  but  accursed 
people  follow  him,  that  knew  not  the  law ',  and  if  you 
say  as  Nathaniel  said  (John  i.  46),  "  Can  there  any 
good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?"  we  say  with 
Philip,  "Come  and  see." 

Frojji  Worcester  Prison. 

George  Fox  to  such  as  say  the  Quakers  are  no  Christiana. 
1673. 


SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


35 


Question.  "What  is  your  belief  concerning  the 
blessed  Trinity,  as  our  term  is  ? 

Ansicer.  Our  belief  is,  tbat  in  the  unity  of  tlie 
Godhead  there  is  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
being  those  three  Divine  Witnesses  that  bear  record 
in  heaven,  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit;  and  that  these  three  are  one,  according  to 
Holy  Scripture  testimony. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  the  Divinity  and  humanity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  or  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  truly  God  and  man  if 

Ansio.  Yes ;  we  verily  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
truly  God  and  man,  according  as  Holy  Scripture  tes- 
tifies of  Him,  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever,  the  true 
God  and  Eternal  Life,  the  one  Mediator  between  God 
and  men,  even  the  Man  Christ  Jesus. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  and  expect  salvation  and 
justification,  by  the  righteousness  and  merits  of 
Jesus  Christ,  or  by  your  own  righteousness  or  works  ? 

Ansic.  By  Jesus  Christ,  his  righteousness,  merits, 
and  works,  and  not  by  our  own.  God  is  not  indebted 
to  us  for  our  deservings,  but  we  to  Him  for  his  free 
grace,  in  Christ  Jesus,  whereby  we  are  saved  through 
faith  in  Him  (not  of  ourselves),  and  by  his  grace 
enabled  truly  and  acceptably  to  serve  and  follow  Him 
as  he  requires  :  He  is  our  all  in  all,  who  worketh  all 
in  us  that  is  well  pleasing  to  God. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  remission  of  sin,  and  re- 


36 


DOCTRINES   OF  THE 


demption  tlirough  the  sufferings,  death,  and  blood  of 
Christ? 

AnsiD.  Yes ;  through  faith  in  Him,  as  he  suffered 
and  died  for  all  men,  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all ; 
and  his  blood  being  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins, 
so  all  they  who  sincerely  believe  and  obey  Him,  re- 
ceive the  benefits  and  blessed  effects  of  his  suffering 
and  dying  for  them ;  they  by  faith  in  his  name  re- 
ceive and  partake  of  that  eternal  redemption,  which 
He  hath  obtained  for  us,  who  gave  Himself  for  us 
that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity.  He  died 
for  our  sins,  and  rose  again  for  our  justification;  and 
if  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  he  is  in  the  light,  we  have 
fellowship  one  with  another,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.  1  John  i.  7. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  and  own  the  Divine  offices 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  .his  church  ? 

Answ.  Yes,  verily,  we  sincerely  believe  and  own 
Christ,  not  only  as  He  is  the  light  of  the  world,  en- 
lightening every  man  coming  into  it;  but  also  that 
He  is  given  for  a  Leader,  and  for  a  Commander;  and 
that  He  is  both  King,  Priest,  and  Prophet  to  and 
over  his  church  and  people.  He  is  the  Minister  of 
the  sanctuary,  which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not  man ; 
and  we  are  to  hear  Him  in  all  things. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  and  own  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contained  in  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  to  be  given  by  Divine  inspiration,  and  to 
contain  all  matters  of  doctrine  and  testimony,  &c., 
necessary  to  be  believed  and  practised  in  order  to 
salvation  and  peace  with  God  ? 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


37 


Answ.  Yes,  we  do,  and  by  the  assistance  of  tlie 
grace  and  good  Spirit  of  God,  which  gives  the  true 
understanding  of  the  mind  of  God,  and  meaning  of 
Holy  Scripture,  we  always  desire  to  live  in  the  faith, 
knowledge,  and  practice  of  them  in  all  things  apper- 
taining to  life  and  godliness.  Holy  Scripture  being 
given  by  Divine  inspiration,  is  profitable  for  doctrine, 
correction,  and  instruction,  that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  every  good 
work,  able  to  make  the  man  of  God  wise  unto  salva- 
tion, through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Quest.  Do  you  believe  the  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  and  of  eternal  judgment,  and 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  ? 

Answ.  We  sincerely  believe  and  confess  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  of  eter- 
nal judgment  according  to  Holy  Scripture.  Heb.  vi. 
and  ii. 

That  God  will  raise  the  dead  and  judge  the  world 
in  righteousness  by  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  day 
appointed,  even  in  the  great  day  of  judgment,  and 
that  harvest  which  is  the  end  of  the  world. 

That  the  soul  of  man,  though  created,  is  immortal, 
and  never  dies :  even  as  these  doctrines  are  more 
fully  testified  in  Holy  Scripture,  by  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  holy  apostles. 

First.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection  see 
Matt.  xiii.  43,  and  chap.  xxii.  30,  31.— Mark  xii.  25. 
—  Luke  XX.  36.  —  John  v.  29.  —  1st  Cor.  chap.  xv. 
19,  35,36,  37  verses,  to  the  53d  verse. — Phil.  iii.  21. 
4 


38 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


—  Colos.  iii.  4.  —  1st  John  iii.  2.  —  1st  Thes.  iv.  16. 
— Kev.  XX.  12,  13,  14,  15. 

Second.  Of  Eternal  Judgment  see  Matt.  xiii.  89, 
40,  41,  42,  chap.  x.  15,  and  xi.  24,  and  xxv.  30,  31, 
41 — Mark  viii.  38.— Luke  ix.  26.— Acts  xvii.  31.— 
John  V.  22,  27.— Acts  x.  42.— 2d  Thes.  i.  7,  8,  9.— . 
2d  Tim.  iv.  1.  —  1st  Peter  iv.  5.  — 2d  Peter  ii.  9.  — 
Jude  6. 

Third.  For  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul  see  Gen. 
i.  27,  and  ii.  7.— 1st  Kings  xvii.  21.— Matt.  xvi.  26. 
Mark  viii.  36,  37. — Eccles.  iii.  21,  and  xii.  7. — Luke 
xvi.  22,  23.— 2d  Cor.  v.  1,  2. 

"  The  Christianity  of  the  people  commonly  called  Quakers, 
asserted."  1689. 


We  sincerely  profess  faith  in  Grod  by  his  only-be- 
gotten Son  J esus  Christ,  as  being  our  light  and  life, 
our  only  way  to  the  Father,  and  also  our  only  Media- 
tor and  Advocate  with  the  Father. 

That  God  created  all  things,  He  made  the  worlds, 
by  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  He  being  that  powerful  and 
living  Word  of  God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made; 
and  that  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
are  one,  in  Divine  being  inseparable ;  one  true,  living, 
and  eternal  God,  blessed  for  ever. 

Yet  that  this  Word,  or  Son  of  God,  in  the  fulness 
of  time,  took  flesh,  became  perfect  man  according  to 
the  flesh,  descended  and  came  of  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham and  David ;  but  was  miraculously  conceived  by 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


39 


the  Holy  Ghost,  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary;  and 
also,  further,  declared  powerfully  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  according  to  the  spirit  of  sanctification,  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead. 

That  in  the  Word  (or  Son  of  God)  was  life,  and 
the  same  life  was  the  light  of  men ;  and  that  He  was 
that  true  light,  which  enlightens  every  man  coming 
into  the  world ;  and  therefore  that  men  are  to  be- 
lieve in  the  light,  that  they  may  become  the  children 
of  the  light;  hereby  we  believe  in  Christ  the  Son  of 
God,  as  He  is  the  light  and  life  within  us ;  and 
wherein  we  must  needs  have  sincere  respect  and 
honour  to  (and  belief  in)  Christ,  as  in  his  own  un- 
approachable and  incomprehensible  glory  and  ful- 
ness ;  as  He  is  the  fountain  of  life  and  light,  and 
giver  thereof  unto  us ;  Christ,  as  in  himself,  and  as 
in  us,  being  not  divided.  And  that  as  man,  Christ 
died  for  our  sins,  rose  again,  and  was  received  up 
into  glory  in  the  heavens ;  He  having,  in  his  dying 
for  all,  been  that  one  great  universal  offering  and 
sacrifice  for  peace,  atonement,  and  reconciliation  be- 
tween God  and  man ;  and  he  is  the  propitiation  not 
for  our  sins  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  v\^hole  world. 
We  were  reconciled  by  his  death,  but  saved  by  his 
life. 

That  Jesus  Christ,  who  sitteth  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the  heavens,  yet  He 
is  our  King,  High  Priest,  and  Prophet ;  in  his  church, 
a  Minister  of  the  sanctuary,  and  of  the  true  taber- 
nacle which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not  man.  He  is 
Intercessor  and  Advocate  with  the  Father  in  heaven, 


40 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


and  there  appearing  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us, 
being  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities, 
sufierings,  and  sorrows.  And  also  by  his  Spirit  in 
our  hearts,  He  maketh  intercession  according  to  the 
will  of  God,  crying,  Abba,  Father. 

That  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  should  be 
preached  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  being  one  in  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness, 
and  indivisible  (or  not  to  be  divided)  in  the  great 
work  of  man's  salvation. 

We  sincerely  confess  (and  believe  in)  Jesus  Christ, 
both  as  He  is  true  God,  and  perfect  man,  and  that 
He  is  the  author  of  our  living  faith  in  the  power  and 
goodness  of  God,  as  manifested  in  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  and  by  his  own  blessed  Spirit  (or  Divine  unc- 
tion) revealed  in  us,  whereby  we  inwardly  feel  and 
taste  of  his  goodness,  life,  and  virtue ;  so  as  our  souls 
live  and  prosper  by  and  in  Him :  and  the  inward 
sense  of  this  Divine  power  of  Christ,  and  faith  in 
the  same,  and  the  inward  experience,  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  make  a  true,  sincere,  and  perfect  Chris- 
tian in  spirit  and  life. 

That  Divine  honour  and  worship  is  due  to  the  Son 
of  God ;  and  that  He  is,  in  true  faith,  to  be  prayed 
unto,  and  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  called 
upon  (as  the  primitive  Christians  did),  because  of 
the  glorious  union  or  oneness  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  and  that  we  cannot  acceptably  offer  up  prayers 
and  praises  to  God,  nor  receive  a  gracious  answer  or 
blessing  from  God,  but  in  and  through  his  dear  Son 
Christ. 


SOCIETY    OF    PRIEXDS.  41 

That  Christ's  body  that  was  crucified  was  not  the 
Godhead,  yet  by  the  power  of  God  was  raised  from 
the  dead ;  and  that  the  same  Christ  that  was  therein 
crucified,  ascended  into  heaven  and  glory,  is  not 
questioned  by  us.  His  flesh  saw  no  corruption,  it 
did  not  corrupt,  but  yet,  doubtless,  his  body  was 
changed  into  a  more  glorious  and  heavenly  condition 
than  it  was  in  when  subject  to  divers  sufferings 
on  earth;  but  how  and  what  manner  of  change  it 
met  withal,  after  it  was  raised  from  the  dead,  so  as 
to  become  such  a  glorious  body  (as  it  is  declared  to 
be),  is  too  wonderful  for  mortals  to  conceive,  appre- 
hend, or  pry  into  (and  more  meet  for  angels  to  see) ; 
the  Scripture  is  silent  therein,  as  to  the  manner 
thereof,  and  we  are  not  curious  to  inquire  or  dispute 
it;  nor  do  we  esteem  it  necessary  to  make  ourselves 
wise  above  what  is  written,  as  to  the  manner  or  con- 
dition of  Christ's  glorious  body,  as  in  heaven  ;  no 
more  than  to  inquire  how  Christ  appeared  in  divers 
manners  or  forms ;  or  how  He  came  in  among  his 
disciples,  the  doors  being  shut :  or  how  He  vanished 
out  of  their  sight,  after  He  was  risen.  However,  we 
have  cause  to  believe  his  body,  as  in  heaven,  is 
changed  into  a  most  glorious  condition,  far  transcend- 
ing what  it  was  in  on  earth ;  otherwise  how  should  our 
low  body  be  changed,  so  as  to  be  made  like  unto  his 
glorious  body  ?  —  for  when  He  was  on  earth  and  at- 
tended with  sufi"erings,  He  was  said  to  be  like  unto 
us  in  all  things,  sin  alone  excepted ;  which  may  not 
be  said  of  Him  as  now  in  a  state  of  glory,  as  He 
4.  * 


42 


DOCTRINES    OF  THE 


prayed  for;  otherwise  where  would  be  the  change 
both  in  Him  and  in  us  ? 

Concerning  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the 
great  day  of  judgment  yet  to  come,  beyond  the  grave, 
or  after  death,  and  Christ's  coming  without  us,  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  (as  divers  questions 
are  put  in  such  terms),  what  the  Holy  Scriptures 
plainly  declare  and  testify  in  these  matters,  we  have 
been  always  ready  to  embrace. 

1.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection :  if  in  this 
life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men 
most  miserable.  1  Cor.  xv.  19.  ^Ye  sincerely  believe 
not  only  a  resurrection  in  Christ  from  the  fallen  sin- 
ful state  here,  but  a  rising  and  ascending  into  glory 
with  him  hereafter,  that  when  he  at  last  appears,  we 
may  appear  with  Him  in  glory.  Col.  iii.  4;  1 
John  iii.  2. 

But  that  all  the  wicked,  who  live  in  rebellion 
against  the  light  of  grace,  and  die  finally  impenitent, 
shall  come  forth  to  the  resurrection  of  condemnation. 

And  that  the  soul  or  spirit  of  every  man  and 
woman  shall  be  reserved  in  its  own  distinct  and 
proper  being,  and  every  seed  (yea  every  soul)  shall 
have  its  proper  body,  as  God  is  pleased  to  give  it.  1 
Cor.  XV.  A  natural  body  is  sown,  a  spiritual  body 
is  raised ;  that  being  first  which  is  natural,  and  after- 
ward that  which  is  spiritual.  And  though  it  is  said, 
this  corruptible  shall  put  on  incorruption,  and  this 
mortal  shall  put  on  immortality,  the  change  shall  be 
such  as  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  Grod,  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption. 


SOCIETY    OF   FRIENDS.  43 

1  Cor.  XY.  We  shall  be  raised  out  of  all  corruption 
and  corruptibility,  out  of  all  mortality ;  and  tlie  chil- 
dren of  God  and  of  the  resurrection  shall  be  equal 
to  the  ano-els  of  God  in  heaYen.  And  as  the  celes- 
tial  bodies  do  far  excel  terrestrial,  so  we  expect  our 
spiritual  bodies  in  the  resurrection  shall  far  excel 
what  our  bodies  now  are.  Howbeit  we  esteem  it 
Yery  unnecessary  to  dispute  or  question  how  the  dead 
are  raised,  or  with  what  body  they  come ;  but  rather 
submit  that  to  the  wisdom  and  pleasure  of  Almighty 
God. 

2.  For  the  doctrine  of  eternal  judgment :  God  hath 
committed  all  judgment  unto  his  Son  Jesus  Christ; 
and  he  is  Judge  both  of  quick  and  dead,  and  of  the 
states  and  ends  of  all  mankind.  John  y.  22,  27.  — 
Acts  X.  42.-2  Tim  Iy.  1.— 1  Pet.  iv.  5. 

That  there  shall  be  hereafter  a  great  harvest,  which 
is  the  end  of  the  world,  a  great  day  of  judgment,  and 
the  judgment  of  that  great  day,  the  Holy  Scripture 
is  clear.  31att.  xiii.  39,  40,  41,  x.  15,  and  xi.  24. — 
Jude  6.  "  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh  in  his 
glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  Him,  then  shall 
He  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory,  and  before  Him 
shall  be  gathered  all  nations,"  &c.  Matt  xxv.  31,  32, 
to  the  end,  compared  with  chap,  xxii.  21.  —  31ark 
viii.  38.— -Luke  ix.  26,  and  1  Cor.  xy.  52.-2  Thess. 
i.  7,  8,  to  the  end,  and  1  Thess.  Iy.  16.  —  Ecy.  xx. 
12,  13, 14,  15. 

Statement  of  Christian  Doctrine.  1693. 


44 


DOCTRINES   OF  THE 


We  feel  ourselves  called  upon,  at  this  time,  to  avow 
our  belief  in  the  inspiration  and  Divine  authority  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament. 

We  further  believe,  that  the  promise  made  after 
the  transgression  of  our  first  parents,  in  the  conse- 
quence of  whose  fall  all  the  posterity  of  Adam  are 
involved,  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise 
the  head  of  the  serpent;  and  the  declaration  unto 
Abraham,  In  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  be  blessed,"  had  a  direct  reference  to  the 
coming  in  the  flesh  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  To 
Him,  also,  did  the  prophet  Isaiah  bear  testimony, 
when  he  declared,  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us 
a  son  is  given ;  and  the  government  shall  be  upon 
his  shoulder  :  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful, 
Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father, 
the  Prince  of  Peace :  of  the  increase  of  his  govern- 
ment and  peace  there  shall  be  no  end."  And  again, 
the  same  prophet  spoke  of  Him  when  He  said  "  Surely 
He  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and  carried  our  sorrows :  yet 
we  did  esteem  Him  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and 
afflicted ;  but  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions : 
He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities :  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  was  upon  Him :  and  with  his  stripes 
we  are  healed."  The  same  blessed  Eedeemer  is  em- 
phatically denominated  by  the  prophet  Jeremiah, 
''The  Lord  our  Righteousness." 

At  that  period,  and  in  that  miraculous  manner 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


45 


which  God  in  his  perfect  wisdom  saw  fit,  the  pro- 
mised Messiah  appeared  personally  upon  earth,  when 
"  He  took  not  on  Him  the  nature  of  angels ;  but  He 
took  on  Him  the  seed  of  Abraham."  "  He  was  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.'^ 
Having  finished  the  work  which  was  given  Him  to 
do,  He  gave  himself  for  us  an  ofi"ering  and  a  sacri- 
fice to  God.  He  tasted  death  for  every  man.  "  He 
is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins  :  and  not  for  ours  only, 
but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  "We  have 
redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness 
of  sins."  He  passed  into  the  heavens :  and  being 
the  brightness,  of  the  glory  of  God,  "  and  the  ex- 
press image  of  his  person,  and  upholding  all  things 
by  the  word  of  his  power,  when  He  had  by  himself 
purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high/'  and  ever  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion for  us. 

It  is  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  the  world  will 
be  judged  in  righteousness.  He  is  the  mediator  of 
the  new  covenant ;  "  the  image  of  the  invisible  God, 
the  first-born  of  every  creature :  for  by  Him  were 
all  things  created  that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  in 
earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones, 
or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers :  all  things 
were  created  by  Him,  and  for  Him  :  and  He  is  before 
all  things,  and  by  Him  all  things  consist."  "  In  Him 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily,"  and 
to  Him  did  the  evangelist  bear  testimony  when  he 
said,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  "Word,  and  the 
"Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The 


46 


DOCTRINES   OF  THE 


same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things 
were  made  by  Him ;  and  without  Him  was  not  any- 
thing made  that  was  made.  In  Him  Was  life ;  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  men."  "  He  was  the  true 
light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world." 

Our  blessed  Lord  himself  spoke  of  his  perpetual 
dominion  and  power  in  his  churchy  when  He  said, 
"  My  sheep  hear  my  voice,  and  I  know  them,  and 
they  follow  me :  and  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life 
and,  when  describing  the  spiritual  food  which  He 
bestoweth  on  the  true  believers.  He  declared,  "  I  am 
the  bread  of  life :  he  that  cometh  to  me  shall  never 
hunger,  and  he  that  believeth  on  me  shall  never 
thirst."  He  spoke  also  of  his  saving  grace,  bestowed 
on  those  who  come  in  faith  unto  Him,  when  He  said, 
"  Whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst;  but  the  water  that  I  shall 
give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water,  springing 
up  into  everlasting  life." 

Our  religious  Society,  from  its  earliest  establish- 
ment to  the  present  day,  has  received  these  most  im- 
portant doctrines  of  Holy  Scripture  in  their  plain  and 
obvious  acceptation :  and  it  is  the  earnest  desire  of 
this  Meeting,  that  all  who  profess  our  name,  may  so 
live,  and  so  walk  before  God,  as  they  may  know  these 
sacred  truths  to  be  blessed  to  them  individually.  We 
desire  that,  as  the  mere  profession  of  sound  Christian 
doctrine  will  not  avail  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul, 
all  may  attain  to  a  living  efficacious  faith,  which, 
through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  bringeth  forth 


SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


47 


fruit  unto  holiness ;  the  end  whereof  is  everlasting 
life,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  "Blessing, 
and  honour,  and  glory,  and  power,  be  unto  Him  that 
sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever 
and  ever.'' 

Miuute  of  London  Yearly  Meeting,  1829. 


Dear  Friends, — We  are  again  made  sensible  that 
we  cannot  meditate  on  a  subject  more  fraught  with 
instruction  and  comfort,  than  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  God  in  the  flesh,  and  the  many  blessings  which 
through  Him  have  been  conferred  on  the  human 
race,  —  the  coming  of  Him,  who,  being  born  of  a 
virgin,  "  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men  who, 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to 
be  equal  with  God ;  but  made  himself  of  no  reputa- 
tion, and  took  upon  Him  the  form  of  a  servant." 
He  "  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was  raised 
again  for  our  justification."  He  ascended  on  high, 
He  led  captivity  captive.  He  received  gifts  for  men, 
yea,  for  the  rebellious  also,  that  the  Lord  God  might 
dwell  among  them.  He  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God,"  making  intercession  for  us.  He  "  is  made  unto 
us  of  God,  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctiii- 
cation,  and  redemption and  unto  Him  we  must  look 
as  our  Mediator  and  Advocate  with  the  Father.  He 
emphatically  describes  himself  as  "the  good  Shep- 
herd." He  is  our  Lawgiver;  and  solemn  indeed  is 
the  declaration,  that  we  must  all  appear  before  his 


DOCTRINES   OF  THE 


judgment-seat,  to  receive  our  reward,  according  to 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether  they  be  good  or 
bad. 

We  feel  that  it  is  not  a  light  matter  thus  to  advert 
again  to  the  various  offices  of  the  Son  and  sent  of 
the  Father;  and  we  beseech  all  whom  we  are  ad- 
dressing, to  contemplate  these  solemn  truths  with 
due  reverence ;  yet  frequently  to  meditate  thereon, 
seeking  for  the  assistance  of  the  Grace  of  God  to 
direct  their  understandings  aright.  As  this  is  done 
with  humble  and  believing  hearts,  the  conviction 
will  increase,  and  ultimately  become  settled,  that  it 
is  a  great  mercy  to  know  individually  that  we  have 
not  a  High  Priest  who  cannot  be  touched  with  a  feel- 
ing of  our  infirmities,  but  who  was  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin. 

But,  blessed  be  God,  He  has  not  only  provided  the 
means  of  reconciliation  unto  himself,  through  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ;  He  hath  also,  through  the  same 
compassionate  Saviour,  granted  unto  us  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  By  this  the  patriarchs,  and  the 
holy  men  of  old  who  lived  under  the  law,  walked  ac- 
ceptably before  God.  Its  more  plenteous  effusion, 
and  its  powerful  and  life-giving  efiects,  were  distinctly 
foretold  by  the  ancient  prophets.  Christ  himself  de- 
clared that  it  was  expedient  that  He  should  go  away, 
that  He  might  send  the  Comforter,  the  Spirit  of 
Truth,  who  should  guide  into  all  truth :  in  allusion 
to  whose  coming  He  also  said,  "  I  will  not  leave  you 
comfortless,  I  will  come  to  you."  To  be  guided  by 
\    his  Spirit  is  the  practical  application  of  the  Christian 


SOCIETY    OF  rPwIEXDS 


49 


religion.  It  is  the  light  of  Christ  "wrhich  enlightens 
the  darkness  of  the  heart  of  man :  and  by  following 
this  light,  vre  are  enabled  to  enjoy  and  maintain  com- 
munion with  Him.  The  children  of  God  are  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  God ;  and  this  is  the  appointed  means 
of  bringing  ds  into  that  state  of  "  holiness,  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  It  is  not  a  doe- 
trine  of  mysticism,  but  one  of  practical  piety.  The 
great  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  firmly  believe  to 
be,  to  convince  of  sin,  to  bring  the  soul  to  a  state  of 
deep  and  sincere  repentance,  and  to  effect  the  work 
of  sanctification.  A  holy  and  constant  watchfulness 
is  required,  to  preserve  the  mind  alive  to  the  guidance 
of  this  Divine  Teacher;  who,  if  dihgently  sought 
after  and  waited  for,  will  be  found  to  be  a  swift  wit- 
ness for  God  in  the  soul,  producing  that  tenderness 
of  spirit,  and  that  quickness  of  understanding  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord,  which  are  essential  to  our  growth 
in  grace.  • 

It  is  through  Him  whom  God  has  set  forth  to  be  a 
propitiation,  through  faith  in  his  blood,  that  we  ob- 
tain pardon  for  sin ;  and  it  is  through  the  power  of 
his  Spirit  working  mightily  in  us,  that  we  come  even- 
tually to  experience  freedom  from  sin. 

Epistle  of  London  Yearly  Meeting,  1S30. 


5 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

OF 

THE  TEACHING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT, 

AS  HELD  BY  THE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS. 


The  great  doctrine  of  the  teaching  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  held  by  the  religious  Society  of  Friends, 
has  often  been  misunderstood,  and  it  has  been  felt  to 
be  desirable  to  attempt  briefly  to  state  the  views  of 
the  Society  upon  this  doctrine.  Before,  however, 
proceeding  to  do  this,  it  may  be  right  to  premise  a  few 
particulars  relative  to  some  other  fundamental  points. 

1.  They  have  always  maintained  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  were  given  by  inspiration  of  God ;  and, 
believing  them  to  convey  to  man  a  declaration  of  the 
deahngs  of  God  with  his  people  in  past  ages — of  his 
statutes,  judgments,  and  mercy,  and,  above  all,  as 
containing  the  message  of  the  covenant  of  grace  and 
peace  through  Jesus  Christ  —  they  have  always 
taught  that  these  writings  are  to  be  reverently  re- 
ceived, diligently  read,  and  their  commands  faithfully 
obeyed. 

2.  In  full  accordance  with  these  writings  they  have 
ever  believed,  that  there  is  one  God  and  Father  of 

(51) 


52 


TEACHING  OF 


all,  of  whom  are  all  things;  that  there  is  one  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  who 
was  glorified  with  the  Father,  before  the  world  was, 
who  is  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever ;  and  that  there 
is  one  Holy  Spirit,  the  promise  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  the  leader,  sanctifier,  and  comforter  of  his 
people;  and  that  these  three  are  one  God.  And, 
though  shunning  scholastic  terms  and  distinctions, 
or  the  attempt  to  be  wise  in  the  deep  things  of  God 
beyond  what  he  has  plainly  revealed,  they  have  ever 
held,  without  any  mystification,  the  real  manhood  as 
well  as  the  deity  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ :  that  the  Word  which  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God,  and  was  God,  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
amongst  us ;  that  He  was  the  Messiah  of  whom  the 
Old  Testament,  from  Genesis  to  Malachi,  so  largely 
speaks,  and  whose  offices  in  the  church  were  pre- 
figured in  various  types  under  the  Mosaic  covenant. 

3.  They  believe  that  man,  as  he  stands  in  the  fall, 
is  separated,  alienated  in  his  nature  from  God ;  that 
we  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of 
God,  and  are  therefore  exposed  to  Divine  wrath ;  and 
that  it  is  solely  through  the  mercy  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ  that  we  are  again  brought  into  reconciliation 
with  Him ;  receiving  remission  of  our  sins  through 
the  one  propitiatory  ofi"ering  of  the  Lamb  of  God, 
and  sanctification  of  heart  through  the  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  They  also  believe  that  there  shall 
be  a  great  day  of  final  account,  in  which  all  men 
shall  be  judged  by  Jesus  Christ,  when  "  all  who  are 
in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come 


THE    HOLY  SPIRIT. 


53 


forth,  they  that  have  done  good  unto  the  resurrection 
of  life  ;  and  they  that  have  done  evil  unto  the  resur- 
rection of  damnation/'  John  v.  21,  29. 

4.  They  have  from  their  origin  declared  that  they 
believed  in  no  natural  principle  or  power  in  man  to 
discover  Divine  truth,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  turn 
effectually  to  God ;  but  they  have  not  hesitated  to 
declare  their  experimental  conviction,  that  by  the  im- 
mediate power  of  his  Spirit  man  is  convinced  of  sin, 
led  to  deep  repentance  for  sin,  to  trust  alone  to  the 
free  mercy  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  his  sins,  and  to  experience  the  purification 
of  his  heart  by  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit. 

It  is  in  reference  to  this  great  practical  work  that 
they  have  urged  so  earnestly  the  doctrine  of  spiritual 
influence ;  that  they  have  called  upon  men  to  consider 
whether  they  did  not  know  the  convictions  for  sin  in 
their  own  hearts,  and  besought  them  to  attend  to 
them  as  the  monitions  of  the  Holy  Spirit  calling  them 
to  repentance,  and  to  come  unto  Christ,  that  they 
might  be  made  partakers  of  the  blessings  of  his 
covenant,  and  know  through  Him  true  union  and 
peace  with  God. 

They  esteem  it  no  derogation  from  the  character  of 
Holy  Scripture,  but  that  it  is  in  the  strictest  accord- 
ance with  its  scope  and  letter,  to  maintain  that  some 
measure  of  the  light  of  the  Spirit  of  God  has  been 
immediately  granted  to  man  ever  since  his  fall,  for 
the  purpose  of  his  restoration ;  that  it  is  the  spring 
and  principle  of  all  true  knowledge  and  holiness; 
and  that  a  larger  measure  of  this  grace,  a  fuller  com- 
5* 


54 


TEACHING  OF 


munication  between  God  and  liis  people,  is  tlie  pecu- 
liar feature  and  privilege  of  the  Christian  covenant. 

Neither  do  they  imagine  that  they  withdraw  one 
.iota  from  the  character  of  our  blessed  Lord,  as  having 
been  the  sacrifice  for  our  sins  upon  the  cross,  and  as 
still  ever  living  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  as 
our  high  priest  and  intercessor,  when  they  assert,  as 
they  believe  on  the  full  authority  of  Holy  Scripture, 
that,  as  the  ^^true  light  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world"  (John  i.  9),  Christ  has 
been  spiritually  present  with  mankind  in  every  age ; 
that  with  Him  in  an  especial  manner  the  righteous 
patriarchs  walked ;  that  He  followed  and  instructed 
the  children  of  Israel ;  and  that  He  is  still  present 
with  the  objects  of  his  redeeming  love,  calling  them 
by  his  grace,  and,  when  converted  to  Him,  dwelling 
with  them  as  their  Bishop,  Teacher,  and  King. 

When  the  apostle  John  declares,  that  Christ  "  was 
the  true  light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world,"  we  apprehend  that  he  speaks  not 
only  with  reference  to  that  light  which  shone  forth  in 
himself  when  personally  on  earth,  but  also  of  his  en- 
lightening grace  bestowed  in  measure  upon  all  men 
as  the  objects  of  his  redeeming  love  in  every  age. 

"When  our  Lord,  after  his  ascension,  in  the  reve- 
lation which  he  made  to  his  servant  John,  declared, 

Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock;  if  any  man 
hear  my  voice,  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to 
him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  me  "  (Rev. 
iii.  29),  we  apprehend  that  He  spoke  of  those  gra- 
cious visitations  which,  by  his  Spirit,  He  makes  to 


THE    HOLT  SPIRIT. 


55 


the  soiil;3  of  men,  in  their  unregenerate  state,  to  call 
them  to  repentance ;  and  also  of  that  union  with  Him 
which  takes  place  in,  and  is  the  unspeakable  privilege 
of,  the  renewed  soul.  This  privilege  is  spoken  of  on 
another  occasion  by  our  Lord,  where  He  sa^-s,  If  a 
man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words  :  and  my  Father 
will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him  and  make 
our  abode  with  him  *'  (John  xiv.  23) ;  and  again  to 
his  disciples,  shortly  before  his  ascension,  Lo,  lam 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world/^ 
Matt,  xxviii.  20.  This  spiritual  intercourse  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends  do  believe  to  be  sensible  and  imme- 
diate, both  as  it  regards  the  first  enlightenment  of  the 
soul,  its  spiritual  discipline,  and  its  fuller  and  more 
constant  realization  of  the  Divine  presence.  And 
when  our  Saviour  said,  for  the  encouragement  of  his 
disciples,  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together 
in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,'' 
(Matt,  xviii.  20),  we  believe  He  spoke  of  his  imme- 
diate spiritual  presence  in  the  midst  of  his  church, 
that  is,  not  of  a  mere  outward  association  of  profes- 
sors, but  of  the  few  or  the  many  living  spiritual  dis- 
ciples, in  every  place,  under  eveiy  name,  and  in 
every  age. 

In  accordance  with  these  declarations  of  our  Lord 
are  numerous  passages  in  the  epistolaiy  writings 
of  the  Xew  Testament.  When  the  apostle  Paul 
says,  ^'Xow  if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
he  is  none  of  his  "  (Eom.  viii.  9),  and,  Know  ye 
not  your  own  selves,  how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you, 
except  ye  be  reprobates?'*'  (2  Cor.  xiii.  5),  and  when 


56 


TEACHING  OF 


he  says,  "  If  Clirist  be  in  you,  the  body  is  dead  be- 
cause of  (as  regards)  sin :  but  the  Spirit  is  life  be- 
cause of  (as  regards)  righteousness ;  but  if  the  Spirit 
of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in 
you,  He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall 
also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  that 
dwelleth  in  you  (Rom.  viii.  10,  11),  and  when,  in 
writing  to  the  Colossian  believers,  he  uses  these 
words,  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory,"  we  appre- 
hend that  he  speaks  of  the  presence  of  Christ  by 
his  Spirit,  granted  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  the 
soul  to  God,  and  keeping  it  in  true  union  with  Him. 
We  do  not  confound  together  the  striving  and  con- 
victing reproofs  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  soul,  with 
that  which  may  more  especially  be  called  his  in- 
dwelling presence;  but  we  conceive  that  we  have 
apostolic  authority  for  exhorting  our  young  persons 
and  others  to  mind  the  convictions  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  in  them ;  and,  upon  the  authority  of  the  pre- 
ceding as  well  as  of  various  other  passages  of  Holy 
Scripture,  we  apprehend  that  we  are  justified  in 
holding,  in  the  manner  we  do,  the  doctrine  of  the 
continued  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with 
his  people,  and  in  speaking,  as  we  do,  of  the  spiritual 
appropriation  of  all  the  benefits  of  his  coming,  death, 
resurrection,  and  ascension,  and  of  the  participation 
in  the  soul,  by  living  faith,  of  his  body  and  blood. 

It  was  this  spiritual  appropriation,  this  inward 
knowledge  of  Christ  in  all  his  gracious  oflGices, — not 
in  opposition  to  the  outward  knowledge,  but  certainly 
in  opposition  to  the  resting  in  the  outward  know- 


THE    HOLY  SPIRIT. 


57 


ledge, — 'R'liicli  the  early  Friends  pressed  so  earnestly. 
Strongly  and  frequently  did  they  assert,  that  their 
reference  to  the  spiritual  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
heart  was  not  subversive  of  a  simple  unsophisticated 
belief  in  all  that  is  revealed  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  relative  to  the  character  and  offices  of  our 
blessed  Saviour.  It  was  indeed,  to  Him,  not  in  part, 
but  in  whole,  that  they  called  men;  and,  whilst  in- 
sisting on  the  actual  necessity  of  a  change  of  heart 
for  acceptance  with  God,  they  undoubtedly  believed 
that  it  was  only  through  his  mercy  in  Christ  as  the 
Redeemer  of  men,  by  the  offering  of  his  body  on  the 
cross,  that  they  received  the  remission  of  their  sins ; 
and  that  it  was  alone  to  the  power  of  that  Holy 
Spirit  which  He  had  purchased  for  them  by  his  blood, 
that  they  attributed  their  ability  to  do  any  good 
work.  Christ  being  thus  the  author  and  finisher  of 
their  faith,  and  their  only  hope  of  eternal  life. 

"We  apprehend,  that  whatever  were  the  spiritual 
privileges  possessed  by  the  Jew,  or  symbolized  in  the 
economy  of  the  Mosaic  law,  they  are  in  the  full  pos- 
session of  the  Christian  church.  The  sacrifices  under 
the  law  set  forth  that  one  propitiation,  which,  being 
applied  by  living  faith  to  the  burthened  conscience, 
gives  the  remission  of  sins ;  and  the  Divine  presence 
within  the  innermost  veil  (from  which  the  high 
priest  received  the  special  commands  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  people),  is  now,  we  reverently  believe, 
in  the  midst  of  his  church,  ready  to  direct  and  guide 
it  by  his  secret  counsels,  and  to  govern  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  truly  wait  on  Him. 


58 


TEACHING  OP 


The  prophecy  of  Jeremiah  in  regard  to  the  new 
covenant  which  was  to  supersede  that  of  the  law, 
appears  to  us  strongly  to  support  our  views  of  the 
privileges  of  the  G  ospel  day.  "  This  is  the  covenant 
that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel  after  those 
days,  saith  the  Lord ;  I  will  put  my  laws  into  their 
mind,  and  write  them  in  their  hearts :  and  I  will  be 
to  them  a  God,  and  they  shall  be  to  me  a  people ; 
and  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  his  neighbour, 
and  every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord, 
for  all  shall  know  me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest." 
Heb.  viii.  10,  11. 

When  our  blessed  Lord  said,  "  He  that  believeth 
on  me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly 
shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water,'^  (John  vii.  36),  the 
apostle  who  records  the  words  says,  "but  this  spake 
He  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  believe  on  Him 
should  receive,"  (John  vii.  39);  signifying,  we  ap- 
prehend, that  the  supply  of  their  spiritual  wants 
should  be  always  at  hand,  and  that  the  benefits  of 
this  supply  vshould  be  difiused  around  them.  When 
our  Lord  declared  that  it  was  expedient  for  his  dis- 
ciples that  He  should  go  away,  for  that  if  He  went 
not  away  the  Comforter  would  not  come  unto  them, 
and  when  He  spoke  of  the  ofiices  of  that  Comforter, 
we  believe  that  He  spoke  of  privileges  which  were 
designed  for  all,  according  to  their  respective  needs, 
who  should  believe  upon  his  name  to  the  end  of 
time. 

We  acknowledge  that  wc  do  materially  differ  from 
those  who  assert  that  several  of  the  Divine  promises 


THE    HOLY  SPIRIT. 


59 


wMcli  Tve  liave  just  referred  to,  belong  only  to  the 
apostles,  and  that  we  derive  the  benefit  of  them  only 
through  their  communication ;  and  we  think  that  the 
stream  of  apostolic  testimony  is  in  our  favour,  to  the 
extent  in  which  we  maintain  the  doctrine  of  imme- 
diate revelation.  When  the  apostle  declares  "  that 
no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  (1  Cor.  xii.  3),  when  he  declares  that 
the  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that 
we  are  the  children  of  God,"  (Rom.  viii.  16),  we  ap- 
prehend that  he  sets  forth  the  need  of  immediate 
spiritual  teaching,  for  the  saving  knowledge  of  Christ, 
and  for  becoming  sons  of  God. 

And  when  he  says  "  The  flesh  lusteth  against  the 
Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against  the  flesh/'  (Gal.  v.  17), 
and  when  he  exhorts,  Walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  ye 
shall  not  fulfil  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,''  (Gal.  v.  16), 
believing  that  these  lusts  are  still  those  bonds  and 
barriers  which  keep  us  from  the  peaceful  knowledge 
of  God,  and  that  the  strivings  of  the  Spirit  are  to  be 
known,  as  well  as  the  strivings  of  the  flesh,  Friends 
think  they  have  apostolical  authority  for  their  so  fre- 
quently urging  the  seeking  of  the  Spirit,  the  mind- 
ing of  the  Spirit,  and  the  walking  in  the  Spirit,  that 
we  may  be  kept  from  the  evils  of  the  world,  and  be 
made  subject  to  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus.  And  in  accordance,  as  they  apprehend,  with 
the  scope  of  the  preceding  passages,  and  of  the  Xew 
Testament  dispensation,  and  whilst  fully  accepting 
the  authority  of  the  whole  revealed  will  of  God,  they 
have  spoken  of  the  spiritual  law  as  constituting  tlie 


60 


TEACHING  OF 


law  and  the  liheriy  of  the  true  Christian :  and,  as  the 
natural  law  in  us  may  fairly  be  called  a  principle, 
being  the  very  element  from  which  evil  action 
springs,  so  have  we  spoken  of  the  renewing  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  as  a  Divine  principle  in  man,  but  not 
of  man,  which  is  the  very  element  of  all  true  holi- 
ness, and  which,  if  allowed  free  course,  would  prove 
itself  to  be  like  that  "  grain  of  mustard  seed,"  spoken 
of  in  our  Lord's  parable,  "which  a  man  took  and 
cast  into  his  garden,  and  it  grew  and  waxed  a  great 
tree." 

When  the  apostle  declares  that  the  things  of  Grod 
are  only  known  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  (address- 
ing the  Corinthians)  says,  "  Now  we  have  received, 
not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit  which  is 
of  God ;  that  we  might  know  the  things  which  are 
freely  given  to  us  of  God," — "  But  the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God :  for 
they  are  foolishness  unto  him :  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned,'^  (1 
Cor.  ii.  12,  14),  we  think  that  he  speaks  of  those  im- 
mediate perceptions  which  the  spiritually-minded  man 
alone  has  of  Divine  things,  even  of  those  which  are 
externally  revealed. 

When  the  apostle  John,  writing  to  the  church  at 
large,  and  speaking  of  those  who  seduced  them,  says, 
"  But  the  anointing  which  ye  have  received  of  him 
abideth  in  you,  and  ye  need  not  that  any  man  teach 
you ;  but  as  the  same  anointing  teacheth  you  of  all 
things,  and  is  truth,  and  is  no  lie,"  (1  John  ii.  27)  ,* 
and  where  the  apostle  Paul  writes  so  particularly  re- 


THE   HOLY  SPIRIT. 


61 


specting  spiritual  gifts  to  the  church  at  Corinth,  we 
think  it  is  clearly  maintained  that  immediate  spiritual 
gifts  were  not  at  that  time  confined  to  the  apostles  : 
and  we  can  find  no  scriptural  authority  which  war- 
rants us  in  denying  that  immediate  spiritual  calls  and 
qualifications  for  services  in  the  church  are  still  to  be 
expected ;  hut,  on  the  contrary,  we  believe  the  asser- 
tion that  they  are  the  existing  privilege  of  the  church, 
is  in  strict  accordance  with  the  letter,  and  in  the  full- 
est harmony  with  the  whole  scope  and  spirit,  of  the 
New  Testament  dispensation. 

Here,  then,  may  be  briefly  enumerated  the  chief 
features  of  this  fundamental  Christian  doctrine,  as 
held  by  the  Society  of  Friends ;  set  forth,  as  they 
apprehend  it  to  be,  in  the  preceding  and  in  many 
other  passages  of  Holy  Scripture. 

1st.  That  the  light  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  en- 
lightenth  every  man  that  conieth  into  the  world. 

2nd.  That  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  in  a  larger 
and  fuller  sense  than  had  been  heretofore  witnessed, 
is  the  peculiar  privilege  of  the  Christian  covenant. 

3rd.  That  the  leading  object  of  this  gift  is,  and  ever 
has  been,  to  quicken  the  soul,  and  raise  man  from  a 
state  of  sin,  which  separates  from  God,  to  a  state  of 
holiness  and  of  acceptance  with  Him,  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

4th.  That  some  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given 
to  every  true  member  of  the  church,  to  fit  him  for  the 
part  assigned  him,  and  that  the  great  Head  of  the 
church  does  immediately  call  some  to,  and  qualify 
6 


62      TEACHING   OF   THE    HOLY  SPIRIT. 


them  for,  those  special  services  by  which  the  body  is 
edified. 

5th.  That,  though  not  looking  for  any  miraculous 
powers  or  prophetic  gifts  in  the  sense  of  foretelling 
future  events,  they  do  not  dare  in  these,  or  in  any 
other  respects,  to  set  limits  to  the  Divine  agency  in 
this  day ;  believing  that  no  apprehension  of  danger 
authorizes  us  to  limit  the  power  of  God,  where  He 
has  not  himself  fully  declared  the  limitation. 

Nevertheless,  let  it  be  remembered,  that  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends  fully  unites  with  other  Christians  in 
believing,  that  there  can  be  no  other  message  and  cove- 
nant of  mercy  and  peace  to  man,  but  that  one  everlast- 
ing Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  pro- 
claimed by  himself,  and  promulgated  by  those  men 
whom  He  so  largely  and  specially  endued  for  their 
work  with  the  Spirit  from  on  high ;  and  also  that 
they  never  looked  for  any  other  revelation  of  that 
message  but  that  which  is  contained  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 


ESSAY 

ON  THE 

DISCIPLIXE  OF  THE  PRDIITIYE  CHRISTIAIsS, 

AXD  ON  THAT  OP  THE 

SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS. 


The  supremacy  of  Jesus,  over  the  little  band  of 
his  followers,  was  never  for  a  moment  disputed. 
They  were  not  permitted  to  call  any  man  master,  or 
to  exalt  each  other  with  the  title  of  Rabbi,  Rabbi ; 
— One  was  their  Master — even  Christ.  Nor  was  this 
view  of  the  subject  obscured  or  weakened,  after  he 
had  withdrawn  his  personal  presence.  Although  he 
had  "  ascended  up  on  high,  far  above  all  heavens," 
he  was  still  with  them,  by  his  Spirit ;  and  they  knew 
that  he  ruled  supreme,  not  only  over  the  church 
which  he  had  purchased  with  his  blood,  but  over  the 
universe  itself,  for  the  church's  sake.'^  They  con- 
fessed that  he  was  their  High  Priest  for  ever  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedek  —  the  king  of  righteous- 
ness— the  king  of  peace ;  and  they  lived  in  filial  re- 
liance upon  his  love. 


*  Eph.  i.  20-23. 

(63) 


64 


ESSAY   ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 


While  they  thus  looked  upon  Christ  as  the  Head 
of  his  wliole  church,  the  believers  were  soon  planted 
in  distinct  communities ;  and  in  each  of  these  it  was 
their  privilege  to  depend  on  the  immediate  govern- 
ment of  their  Lord.  Wherever  they  were  raised  up 
and  gathered  together,  whether  few  or  many  in  num- 
ber, there  they  found  their  ever  present  helper, 
friend,  and  teacher.  They  sat  under  his  shadow 
with  great  delight,  and  his  fruit  was  sweet  to  their 
taste." 

But  the  dependence  of  the  primitive  Christians  on 
their  Holy  High  Priest  and  King,  afforded  them  no 
pretext  for  a  neglect  of  their  duties  as  members  of 
his  body.  The  religion  to  which  they  had  been  in- 
troduced was  found  to  be  of  a  social  character ;  its 
main  practical  feature  was  love :  "  By  this  shall  all-- 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love 
one  to  another."*  For  the  sake  of  that  God  and 
Saviour  who  was  now  the  supreme  object  of  their 
affections,  they  were  willing  to  labour  for  the  benefit 
of  each  other,  and  of  the  church ;  and  this  they  did, 
according  to  their  respective  callings,  under  the  go- 
vernment and  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

One  obvious  duty  which  devolved  upon  them,  was 
to  provide  for  the  poor.  They  were  prepared,  in  this 
respect  as  well  as  in  others,  to  do  good  unto  all 
men,  especially  to  them  that  were  of  the  household 
of  faith."  Thus  we  find  that  the  deacons  were  ap- 
pointed in  the  very  infancy  of  the  churchy  to  provide 
both  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  widows  with  their  daily 


^  John  xiii.  35. 


OF  THE   PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANS.  65 

food, — a  service  of  benevolence,  for  wliicli  seven  men 
were  chosen,  of  "  honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  wisdom."  Liberal  collections  were  after- 
ward made,  in  the  churches  of  Greece  and  Macedo- 
nia, for  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem. 

But  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
their  fellow-believers  was  still  nearer  to  their  hearts; 
they  were  taught  by  the  apostles  to  "  consider  one 
another  to  provoke  unto  love  and  to  good  works."* 
"  Brethren,"  said  Paul  to  the  Galatians,  "  if  a  man 
be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual  restore 
such  an  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness ;  considering 
thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted  —  bear  ye  one  an- 
other's burthens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ."  f 
In  order  to  eflPect  the  object  here  set  forth  by  the 
apostle,  the  most  important  means  must  have  been 
private,  brotherly,  expostulation  and  advice.  When 
one  Christian,  in  tender  love,  reproved  another  for 
his  fault,  and  thus  endeavoured  to  restore  him  to  the 
fold  of  Christ,  this  was  no  improper  interference 
with  individual  liberty — it  was  but  one  needful  fruit 
of  the  law  of  love.  "  Thou  shalt  in  any  wise  rebuke 
thy  neighbour,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  him."  J 

By  our  Saviour  himself  they  were  left  in  posses- 
sion of  a  rule,  which  lay  at  the  very  foundation  of 
Christian  discipline ;  "  Moreover,  if  thy  brother  shall 
trespass  against  thee^  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  be- 
tween thee  and  him  alone  :  if  he  shall  hear  thee  thou 
hast  gained  thy  brother.    But  if  he  shall  not  hear 


*  Heb.  X.  24. 

6* 


t  Gal.  vi.  1. 
E 


X  Lev.  xix.  17. 


66 


ESSAY   ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 


thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  in 
the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  may 
be  established.  And  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them, 
tell  it  unto  the  church/^  * 

Although  the  duty  of  private  admonition  rested 
on  all  true  believers,  as  occasion  might  require  it, 
yet  it  especially  devolved  on  the  most  experienced 
members  of  the  church.  While  the  communities  of 
Christians,  in  that  day,  were  taught  in  the  first  place 
to  submit  to  the  government  of  Christ,  and  in  the 
second,  to  exercise  a  mutual  care  among  themselves, 
they  were  not  left  without  rulers.  "  Obey  them  that 
have  the  rule  over  you,"  said  the  apostle  to  the  He- 
brews, "  for  they  watch  for  your  souls,  as  they  that 
must  give  account."  f 

These  persons  were  called  indifferently,  elders  Or 
overseers,'\_  and  although  it  sometimes  happened  that 
they  possessed  a  gift  for  the  ministry  of  the  word, 
they  were  in  their  official  capacity  (as  has  been  al- 
ready remarked)  §  distinct  from  the  prophets  or 
preachers.  It  was  their  duty  to  guard  and  nourish 
the  people  of  God,  "  taking  the  oversight  thereof,  not 
by  constraint,  but  willingly,  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but 
of  a  ready  mind ;  neither  as  being  lords  over  God's 


*  Matt,  xviii.  15-17.  f  Heb.  xiii.  17. 

J  The  word  tniaKOTroi,  rendered  in  our  version  "bishop," 
signifies  only  an  "overseer." 

g  See  chap.  vi.  p.  145-147,  of  "Observations  on  the  Dis- 
tinguishing Views  and  Practices  of  the  Society  of  Friends," 
by  J.  J.  Gurney.    First  American  Edition. 


OF   THE   PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  67 


heritage,  but  being  ensamples  to  the  flock."  *  In 
these  labours  of  love  they  acted  in  behalf  of  the 

Chief  Shepherd/'  at  whose  hands  alone  they  were 
to  receive  their  crown  of  glory ;  and  although  they 
were  often  ordained  by  the  apostles,  and  other  in- 
spired persons,  it  was  the  Holy  Ghost  who  made  them 
overseers  —  it  was  the  Chief  Shepherd  himself  who 
called  them  into  their  office. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  primary  principle  in  the  early 
Christian  church,  that  whatsoever  office  any  man  oc- 
cupied for  the  spiritual  edification  of  his  brethren, 
nothing  short  of  divine  authority  and  power  could 
truly  bestow  the  commission,  or  qualify  for  the  work. 
Sometimes  the  gifts  of  Christians  are  ascribed  to  God 
the  Father — "  God  hath  set  some  in  the  church,  first, 
apostles,  secondarily,  prophets,  thirdly,  teachers, 
&c."f  —  Sometimes,  to  Christ  —  "He  (Christ)  gave 
some  apostles,  and  some  prophets,  and  some  evange- 
lists, and  some  pastors  and  teachers."  J  Sometimes 
to  the  Spirit  —  All  these  worketh  that  one  and  the 
selfsame  Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  he 
will."  § 

But  although  the  "  elders  and  overseers,"  or  "  pas- 
tors and  teachers,"  were  the  leading  persons  in  the 
church,  and  had  an  important  sway  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  body,  they  exercised  no  exclusive  power 
in  the  regulation  of  the  churches ;  much  less  did  any 
such  power  devolve  on  the  prophets  or  preachers. 
On  all  subjects  connected  with  the  interests  of  reli- 


*  1  Peter  v.  1-3. 
X  Eph.  iv.  11. 


t  1  Cor.  xii.  28. 
I  1  Cor.  xii.  11. 


68 


ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 


gion,  and  with  the  welfare  and  good  order  of  the 
body,  the  ultimate  authority,  under  Christ,  rested  on 
the  community  of  believers. 

Many  instances  are  on  record  of  meetings  of  the 
churches,  for  the  consideration  of  such  matters;  and 
on  these  occasions,  even  the  apostles  were  accustomed 
to  act  in  unison  with  their  less  gifted  brethren,  and 
as  members  of  an  undivided  body.  When  a  new 
apostle  was  to  be  appointed  in  the  place  of  Judas, 
the  whole  company  of  believers  united  in  the  nomi- 
nation of  Joseph  and  Matthias,  and  in  that  giving 
forth  of  the  lots,  which  resulted  in  the  choice  of  the 
latter.*  When  deacons  were  to  be  set  apart,  who 
should  undertake  the  care  of  the  poor,  it  was  upon 
all  the  hretliyen  that  the  duty  of  selection  devolved. f 
And  on  the  same  principle  of  discipline,  the  persons 
who  were  to  accompany  Paul  in  conveying  the  con- 
tributions of  the  European  Christians  to  the  poor 
saints  at  Jerusalem,  were  elected  '-by  the  churches 

It  was  to  the  apostles  and  hrethren  at  J erusalem 
that  Peter  apologised,  when  he  had  been  preaching 
the  gospel  to  Cornelius  and  his  family.  It  was  to  the 
church  at  Antioch  that  Paul  and  Barnabas,  on  return- 
ing from  their  mission,  gave  a  report  of  their  pro- 
ceedings in  the  work  of  the  gospel. §  And  it  was  the 
same  body  of  persons  which  brought  them  on  their 
way,  when  they  were  again  leaving  that  city,  for  their 
journey  through  Phenice  and  Samaria. || 

That  important  discussion  which  resulted  in  the 


*  Acts  i.  15-26. 
I  Acts  xiv.  27. 


f  Acts  vi.  3. 
II  Acts  XV.  3. 


X  2  Cor.  viii.  19. 


OF  THE   PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  69 

declaration  of  Gentile  liberty  from  the  yoke  of  the 
Jewish  law,  took  place  in  a  general  assembly  of  the 
Christians  at  Jerusalem.  Paul  and  Barnabas  then 
stated  their  case  to  the  "  multitude  "  of  believers ; 
and  the  "  whole  church  "  united  with  the  apostles  in 
sending  messengers  to  declare  their  will  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  letters  respecting  it,  addressed  to  the 
church  of  Antioch,  were  inscribed  as  coming  from 
the  apostles,  and  elders,  and  brethren.^ 

On  this  occasion  a  rule,  intended  to  be  binding  on 
all  Gentile  believers,  was  settled  in  a  meeting  of  the 
Lord's  peojile.  But  although  the  fixing  of  a  general 
rule  is  a  highly  important  act  of  discipline,  it  does 
not  so  nearly  affect  an  individual,  as  the  suspension 
of  his  own  membership  in  the  body.  It  is,  there- 
fore, satisfactory  to  find,  that  when  an  unfaithful  pro- 
fessor was  to  be  separated  from  communion  with  his 
brethren,  this  also  was  to  be  an  act,  not  of  the  elders 
and  overseers  alone,  but  of  the  church.  The  direc- 
tions of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  respecting  an 
offender  of  this  description,  are  entirely  to  the  point. 
"  For  I  verily,  as  absent  in  body,  but  present  in  spirit, 
have  judged  already  as  though  I  were  present,  con- 
cerning him  that  hath  so  done  this  deed.  In  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ichcn  ye  are  gathered 
together^  and  my  spirit,  with  the  power  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  to  deliver  such  an  one  unto  Satan  for 
the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be 
saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  f    It  is  pro- 


*  Acts  XV.  23. 


1 1  Cor.  V.  3-5. 


70 


ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 


bable  that  some  painful  disease  was  tlie  punishment 
about  to  be  inflicted  through  the  Lord's  power,  on 
this  transgressor;  but  there  was  also  to  be  an  act  of 
excommunication  —  "Purge  out  therefore  the  old 
leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new  lump,  as  ye  are  un- 
leavened." *  The  whole  passage  contains  an  authority 
for  the  separation  of  an  unfaithful  member,  as  an 
act  of  the  body  itself- — and  it  was  by  the  same  body, 
as  we  afterward  find,  that  the  offender,  when  penitent, 
was  to  be  restored  to  his  membership. f 

Since  ivomen  were  not  permitted  to  speak  in  the 
churches,  except  under  the  immediate  influence  of 
the  Spirit,!  and  since  they  were  forbidden  to  "  usurp 
authority  over  the  man/'  I  conclude  that  no  active 
part  was  assigned  to  them  in  public  assemblies  for 
the  settlement  of  the  afiuirs  of  the  church.  No  such 
restriction,  however,  could  be  laid  upon  them,  in  case 
of  their  meeting  together  at  any  time,  without  their 
brethren,  and  it  is  c^tain  that  the  elderly  among 
them  were  intrusted  with  the  instruction  of  their 
younger  sisters,    "  The  aged  women  likewise,  that 

they  be  in  behaviour  as  becometh  holiness  

that  they  may  teach  the  young  women  to  be  sober, 
to  love  their  husbands,  to  love  their  children ;  to  be 
discreet,  chaste,  keepers  at  home,  obedient  to  their 
own  husbands,  that  the  word  of  God  be  not  blas- 
phemed." § 

*  1  Cor.  V.  7.  12  Cor.  ii.  6,  7. 

J  See  Chapter  VIII.,  "Observations,  &c.,"  by  J.  J. 
Gurney. 

I  Tit.  ii.  4,  5. 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  71 


On  a  similar  principle,  there  could  be  no  reason 
why  the  elders  and  overseers,  and  other  gifted  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  should  not  hold  select  conferen- 
ces on  subjects  which  concerned  their  own  station  in 
the  body ;  or  even  on  points  affecting  the  body  at 
large,  so  long  as  they  assumed  no  authority  which  in- 
terfered with  the  functions  of  the  church  itself. 
Examples  of  such  conferences  are  afforded  us  in  the 
history  of  the  apostle  Paul.  When  he  went  up  by 
revelation  to  Jerusalem,  he  conversed  on  the  subject 
of  his  own  calling,  with  the  apostles  and  others  who 
were  "  of  reputation in  the  church.  On  another 
occasion,  the  elders  of  the  church  at  Ephesus  met 
him  at  Miletus,  when  he  unfolded  to  them  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  he  acted  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel, 
and  exhorted  them  to  the  faithful  discharge  of  their 
peculiar  duties.*  Again,  it  appears  to  have  been  by 
a  select  company  of  the  same  character,  that  he  and 
Barnabas  were  separated  from  their  brethren  for  their 
mission  to  lesser  Asia.f 

Now,  whatsoever  was  the  subject  on  which  the 
primitive  believers  were  called  upon  to  deliberate, 

*  Acts  XX.  17. 

y  "  Now  there  were  in  the  church  that  was  in  Antioch  cer- 
tain prophets  and  teachers,  as  Barnabas,  and  Simeon  that 
was  called  Niger,  and  Lucius  of  Cyrene,  and  Manaen,  which 
had  been  brought  up  with  Herod  the  tetrarch,  and  Saul. 
As  they  ministered  to  the  Lord  and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost 
said,  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul,  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them.  And  ivhen  tJiey  had  fasted  and 
prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on  them,  they  sent  them  aivay ;" 
Acts  xiii.  1. 


72  ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

they  depended  for  counsel  and  direction  on  the 
Pivine  Head  of  the  churchy  and  acted  under  the  im- 
mediate guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Their  de- 
mocracy was  safe,  because  it  was  also  a  theocracy. 
The  church  was  enabled  to  conduct  its  own  affairs, 
only  because  Christ  was  its  ruler. 

After  giving  directions  to  his  disciples  respecting 
the  treatment  of  a  delinquent  brother — showing  that, 
when  private  endeavours  had  failed,  the  offence  was 
to  be  laid  before  the  church  —  our  Lord  expressed 
himself  as  follows ;  "  Yerily  I  say  unto  you,  whatso- 
ever ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven, 
and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven."  These  expressions  are  best  un- 
derstood as  relating  to  discipline,  which  was  to  be 
administered  on  earth,  and  to  be  confirmed  "in 
heaven."  The  divine  sanction  was  to  accompany  the 
decision  of  the  body,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Corinthian 
transgressor,  whom  the  church  condemned,  and  whom 
(as  we  may  infer  from  the  passage)  the  Lord  afflicted. 
A  peculiar  authority  in  these  respects  was,  no  doubt, 
bestowed  on  the  apostles,  but  the  same  principle  ap- 
plied, in  its  measure,  to  the  believers  in  general. 

Now  it  is  quite  obvious,  that  whether  the  degree 
of  this  authority  for  binding  and  loosening  was 
greater  or  less,  the  act  of  discipline  could  be  con- 
firmed in  heaven  only  on  one  ground ;  namely,  that 
in  applying  it,  the  Lord's  servants  followed  the  coun- 
sels of  their  divine  Master,  and  formed  their  conclu- 
sions under  the  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit.  Ac- 
cordingly, our  Lord  concludes  his  discourse  on  the 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  73 

subject  by  an  express  promise  of  a  most  cheering 
nature — "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together 
in  my  name^  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them/'  * 

Certain  it  is,  that  the  early  behevers  were  accus- 
tomed to  realize  this  promise,  not  only  when  they 
met  for  the  sole  purpose  of  worship,  but  when  their 
attention  was  directed  to  discipline — to  affairs  of  what- 
soever description,  connected  with  the  order  and  wel- 
fare of  the  body.  Thus,  in  their  first  meeting  after 
the  ascension  of  Jesus,  when  the  important  duty  de- 
volved on  them  of  setting  apart  an  apostle,  the  Lord 
himself  was  present  to  listen  to  their  prayers  and  to 
direct  the  lot ;  nor  can  we  doubt,  that  when  the  seven 
deacons  were  chosen,  the  choice  was  guided  by  wis- 
dom from  above.  The  general  rule  already  alluded 
to  respecting  the  Gentile  converts,  was  formed  under 
a  direct  divine  influence ;  for  the  written  declaration 
of  the  church  on  the  subject  is  thus  prefaced  —  "  It 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  GJiost  and  to  us  to  lay  upon 
you  no  greater  burthen  than  these  necessary  things."  f 

When  the  company  of  prophets  and  teachers  at 
Antioch  was  met  in  one  place,  and  while  ^'  they  min- 
istered to  the  Lord  and  fasted,''  it  was  the  Soli/ 
Ghost  who  said  unto  them,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas 
and  Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called 
them."  I  Again,  when  the  Corinthian  transgressor 
was  to  be  excommunicated,  and  delivered  up,  for  a 
season,  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  his  flesh,  it 
was  "  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  "  that  the  church 


*  Matt.  xYiii.  20.       f  Acts  xv.  28.       i  Acts  xiii.  2. 

7. 


74 


ESSAY  ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 


was  to  assemble  for  the  purpose,  and  in  dependence 
on  his  power  alone,  was  the  chastisement  to  be  in- 
flicted* 

Thus  it  appears  that,  in  primitive  times,  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  of  Christ  was  carefully  main- 
tained, and  at  the  same  time  was  conducted  with  re- 
markable simplicity.  Certain  great  principles,  not 
formally  determined  upon,  but  arising  out  of  the 
nature  of  Christianity  itself,  pervaded  the  whole  sys- 
tem. The  first  was,  that  Christ  is  the  Supreme  and 
only  Head  of  his  own  church,  who  rules  over  her, 
and  ministers  to  all  her  need ;  the  second,  that  Chris- 
tians are  to  care  for  the  temporal  and  spiritual  benefit 
one  of  another,  in  privacy  and  love.  Thirdly,  it  was 
provided  that  the  most  experienced  persons  in  the 
church,  in  the  character  of  elders  and  overseers, 
should  be  the  guardians  of  the  flock,  watching  over 
them  and  ruling  them  in  the  Lord  —  their  gifts  for 
these  purposes,  being  distinct  from  that  of  inspired 
preaching.  Fourthly,  it  was  universally  understood, 
that  these  individuals  were  not  to  be  lords  over  God's 
heritage,  but  that  the  final  authority,  on  all  questions 
of  church  government,  rested  on  the  Lord's  people, 
in  their  collective  capacity.  Lastly,  this  authority 
could  be  duly  exercised,  and  the  discipline  rightly 
conducted,  only  under  the  immediate  control  and 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Through  a  steadfast 
adherence  to  these  principles,  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians were  established  in  the  truth,  and  prospered. 


*  1  Cor.  V.  4. 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  75 

They  grew  up  into  liiiii  in  all  things,  which  is  the 
head,  even  Christ,  from  whom  the  whole  body  fitly 
joined  together  and  compacted  by  that  which  every 
joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working  in 
the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh  increase  of  the 
body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love."*  The 
power,  the  work,  was  the  Lord's,  and  his  alone  was 
the  praise ! 

Christianity  was  established  in  the  world  under 
the  most  extraordinary  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
ever  witnessed  among  men.  During  all  preceding 
ages  of  man's  history,  indeed,  the  Lord  had  reserved 
for  himself  a  church  of  believers,  to  whom  were 
committed  the  oracles  of  God ;  but  now  the  sun  of 
righteousness  had  arisen,  in  all  its  splendor,  upon  a 
corrupt  and  slumbering  world.  After  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  re- 
ligion was  spread  among  many  nations,  through  the 
wondrous  working  of  his  own  power.  The  miracles 
which  the  apostles  and  their  companions  wrought  in 
his  name,  were  precisely  suited  to  the  nature  of  their 
calling,  as  the  promulgators  of  truths  hitherto  un- 
known; and  under  a  divine  influence,  adequate  to 
the  occasion,  they  were  enabled  to  write  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament,  which  were  to  form  the 
standard  of  Christian  doctrine  and  practice  in  all 
succeeding  ages. 

Yet  it  is  certain,  that  the  truth,  which  was  thus 
revealed  with  power,  could  maintain  a  permanent 


*  Epli.  iv.  15,  16. 


76  ESSAY    ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 

footing  on  the  earth,  only  through  the  operation  of 
the  same  Spirit ;  nor  can  we  doubt  that  in  every  age 
of  the  church,  and  even  amid  its  deepest  corruptions, 
a  people,  through  divine  grace,  was  still  preserved 
for  the  Lord.    Hidden  and  scattered  as  the  true 
church  of  Christ  may  often  have  been,  and  more  or 
less  weakened  through  the  superstitions  of  men,  still 
we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  a  remnant  of 
true  believers  has  never  failed  from  the  earth ;  like 
the  seven  thousand  men,  in  the  days  of  Elijah  the 
prophet,  who  had  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal.  And 
not  only  has  there  existed  among  Christians  this  con- 
tinued work  of  grace,  but  fresh  outpourings  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  have,  on  various  occasions,  taken  place, 
which  have  led  to  important  consequences  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  church.    When  such  men  as  Ignatius, 
Polycarp,  Irengeus,  Cyprian,  Ambrose,  Augustine, 
and  Bernard,  were  raised  up  to  bear  a  noble  testi- 
mony to  the  truth,  even  though  that  testimony  was 
shaded  with  some  portions  of  error — when  Claudius 
of  Turin  fought  single-handed  against  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  day  —  when  the  Paulicia'ns  of  Asia,  in 
the  ninth  century,  and  the  Cathari  of  Germany,  in 
the  eleventh,  maintained  a  far  purer  system  of  doc- 
trine and  practice  than  was  customary  in  the  profes- 
sing church — when,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  Peter 
Waldo  boldly  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  the  cross, 
and  the  Lord's  people,  who  had  so  long  been  dwell- 
ing in  the  Alpine  valleys,  openly  declared,  amid  in- 
numerable sufferings,  their  adherence  to  simple  Chris- 
tianity— when  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centu- 


/ 


OF    THE   PRI3IITIYE   CHRISTIANS.      i  i 

Ties  "Wickliffe  and  the  Lollards  in  England,  and  Huss 
and  liis  followers  in  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  stemmed 
the  tide  of  ecclesiastical  corruption  —  and  when,  at 
last,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  reformation,  under 
the  banners  of  Luther,  3Ielanchthon,  and  other  sol- 
diers of  Christ,  burst  forth  with  irresistible  force  in 
almost  every  part  of  Europe — it  is  impossible  to  deny 
that  God  was  at  work  in  the  bosom  of  his  church, 
and  was  carrying  on  his  own  gracious  designs,  by 
means  of  the  especial  effusions  of  his  Holy  Spirit. 

On  none  of  these  occasions  was  there  any  revela- 
tion of  new  truth  —  any  addition  to  original  Chris- 
tianity. There  was  only  the  renewed  publication, 
again  and  again,  of  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  under  different  degrees  of  divine  light,  and 
with  more  or  less  of  the  darkening  mixture  of  human 
wisdom,  according  to  the  features  of  each  particular 
case. 

The  reformation,  which  took  place  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  from  the  corruptions  of  the  papal  system, 
went  far  toward  restoring  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity to  its  native  purity.  But  who  can  wonder 
that  it  did  not  go  the  2choIe  luay  in  this  blessed  and 
necessary  work  ?  And  who  is  not  aware  that  much 
was  left  among  the  protectant  churches,  which  still 
required  the  reforming  hand  of  divine  wisdom  and 
power  ? 

In  our  own  country  the  founders  of  that  system 
of  doctrine  and  discipline,  which  now  distinguishes 
the  established  church  of  England,  were  generally 
men  of  enlightened  minds  and  profound  piety;  and 
7* 


78  ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

many  of  tliem  gave,  at  the  stake,  the  liigliest  proof 
of  fidelity  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  Yet  they  left  a  scope 
to  the  puritans  and  other  nonconformist  divines,  for 
further  efforts  in  the  work  of  purification ;  and  these, 
again,  still  retained  many  views  and  practices  which 
by  no  means  precisely  accorded  with  the  spirituality 
of  the  Gospel. 

Now  T  conceive  that  it  was  under  another  and 
very  powerful  effusion  of  the  one  blessed  Spirit,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion, in  the  Christian  church,  to  a  greater  extent  than 
had  been  before  experienced,  that  Friends  were  so 
remarkably  raised  up  in  the  course  of  the  following 
century.  The  Lord's  call  was  sent  to  a  very  young 
person,  in  a  situation  of  comparative  obscurity ;  and 
it  was  after  the  patient  endurance,  for  several  years, 
of  the  deep  baptism  of  mental  conflict — after  a  long 
preparation  of  prayers  and  tears  with  searching  of 
heart  and  searching  of  the  Scriptures  —  that  George 
Fox  went  forth,  to  proclaim  among  men  the  spiritual- 
ity of  true  religion.  No  one  can  impartially  peruse 
his  history  without  perceiving  that  a  remarkable 
power  attended  his  ministry ;  many  fellow-labourers 
under  the  same  anointing  were  raised  up,  chiefly 
through  his  instrumentality;  and  multitudes  of  per- 
sons were  weaned  from  a  dependence  on  human  sys- 
tems in  religion,  to  sit  down  under  the  teaching  of 
Christ  himself.  Thus  the  first  meetings  of  the  people 
called  Quakers  were  gathered  and  settled  in  almost 
every  part  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland ;  and,  before 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  79 

very  loDg,  in  several  places  on  tlie  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, in  the  West  Indies,  and  in  Xortli  America. 

The  era  when  Friends  arose  in  this  country  was 
one  of  great  excitement,  and  it  ought  to  be  freely  al- 
lowed, that  some  of  them  were  at  times  carried  off 
their  centre  by  a  warm  imagination.  In  taking  a 
calm  review  of  their  history,  I  am  by  no  means  pre- 
pared to  justify  all  that  they  did,  or  all  that  they  said. 
They  were  liable  to  error  and  infirmity  like  other 
men ;  they  had  their  treasure  in  earthen  vessels.  We 
need  not,  therefore,  be  at  all  surprised,  if  we  find 
them  occasionally  giving  way  to  that  enthusiasm  in 
practice,  and  to  that  heat  in  argument,  which  were 
leading  temptations  of  the  day.  But,  while  I  wil- 
lingly make  these  admissions,  I  am  deliberately  of 
opinion,  that  George  Fox  and  his  brethren  were  en- 
abled to  uphold  a  high  standard  of  truth,  and  to 
make  a  very  near  approach  to  the  incormptness  of 
primitive  Christianity.  ^  While  they  were  deeply  read 
in  the  Scriptures,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  the 
guidance  and  government  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
discarded  expedicnci/,  when  it  interfered  with  _p7'm- 
ciple ;  and  they  were  calmly  resolved  ''to  follow  the 
Lamb,"  whithersoever  he  might  lead  them.  The 
consequence  was,  that  they  renounced  all  merely  cere- 
monial observances ;  all  secular  views  in  the  pursuit 
and  maintenance  of  religion ;  and  all  dependence  on 
the  systems  of  men,  in  the  things  of  God. 

From  time  to  time  they  were  gathered  together  in 
silence  before  the  Lord ;  and  such  was  their  contrite 
state,  that  the  floors  of  their  meeting-houses  were 


80  ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 

often  wetted  with  tlieir  tears.  Nor  did  they  dare  to 
omit  their  public  worship,  which  they  regarded  as  an 
essential  mark  of  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of 
kings.  In  the  midst  of  the  fire  of  persecution,  and 
when  the  dissenters  of  the  day  met  only  in  private 
places,  that  they  might  avoid  the  terrors  of  the  law, 
the  despised  Quakers  persisted  in  the  assembling  of 
themselves  together,  and  worshipped  God  in  public, 
in  the  face  of  their  enemies. 

The  same  unbending  principle  they  manifested  in 
their  uniform  refusal  to  pay  tithes  —  to  join  in  the 
warfare  of  the  world  —  and  to  swear  even  in  courts 
of  justice — to  give  that  honour  to  men,  which  is  due 
to  God  alone — or  to  use  those  forms  of  homage  and 
compliment,  which  had  no  better  origin  than  vanity 
and  falsehood.  In  consequence  of  their  firm  Chris- 
tian conduct  in  these  matters,  they  underwent  an 
amount  and  variety  of  sufiiering,  which  have  not 
many  parallels  in  the  history  of  the  church  of  Christ. 
Their  goods  were  spoiled,  and  their  families  reduced 
to  poverty;  multitudes  of  them  were  thrown  into 
filthy  dungeons  among  the  worst  of  felons ;  consider- 
able numbers  lost  their  lives  in  consequence  of  these 
hardships,  and  a  few  (in  New  England)  sufi"ered 
death  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner. 

During  this  time  of  severe  trial,  they  were  enabled 
to  exhibit  the  peaceful  triumphs  of  Christian  prin- 
ciple. So  ardent  was  their  love  for  each  other,  that 
they  frequently  offered  to  lie  in  prison  for  their 
brethren,  body  for  body;*  and  so  undoubted  was 

*  See    Besse's  Sufferings  of  the  Quakers." 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  81 

their  integrity,  that  even  by  their  persecutors 
their  word  was  acknowledged  to  be  as  valid  as  an 
oath.  Thus  the  name  of  Jeshurun,  the  "upright 
people,"  was  truly  applicable  to  them ;  and  as  was 
their  integrity,  so  was  their  patience.  Nothing 
daunted  their  fortitude  or  shook  their  perseverance. 
They  quietly  endured  their  sufferings,  in  submission 
to  the  will  of  God ;  and  God  did  not  forsake  them. 
In  the  depth  of  the  noisome  prison-house,  they  were 
often  permitted  to  feel  the  sweetness  of  his  presence, 
and  their  mouths  were  filled  with  his  praise. 

Makincr  a  due  allowance  for  the  difference  between 

o 

heathen  and  Christian  countries,  we  may  perceive 
a  remarkable  similarity  between  the  first  settlement 
of  the  meetings  of  Friends  in  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, and  the  planting  of  the  primitive  Christian 
churches.  In  both  cases,  societies  were  raised  up  in 
various  distinct  places,  consisting  of  persons  who 
differed  in  a  striking  manner  from  the  surrounding 
community,  and  who  were  associated  in  the  bond  of 
common  principles-  At  once  distinguished  from 
their  fellow-countrymen,  and  agreeing  among  them- 
selves, the  early  Friends  were  well  compacted  toge- 
ther, and  were  baptized  by  one  Spirit  into  one  body. 

Now  I  conceive  that  their  system  of  discipline, 
like  that  of  the  primitive  Christians,  originated  in 
the  very  nature  of  their  social  and  religious  union. 
Gathered  together  by  a  divine  hand,  they  were  taught 
to  love  as  brethren,  and  to  watch  over  each  other  for 
good ;  nor  can  it  be  doubted,  that  from  the  first  rise 
P 


82  ESSAY   ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

of  tlie  society,  the  most  pious  and  experienced  of 
their  number  were  led,  in  an  especial  manner,  to  su- 
perintend the  flock,  and  to  supply,  as -far  as  possible, 
both  their  temporal  and  spiritual  need.    "As  the 
church  of  Grod  in  those  days  increased,"  said  one  of 
our  worthy  elders  about  the  year  1655,  in  reference 
to  the  meeting  of  Friends  at  Colchester,    my  care 
daily  increased,  and  the  weight  of  things  relating 
both  to  the  outward  and  inward  condition  of  poor 
Friends,  came  upon  me  .....  .  the  more  I  came 

to  feel  and  perceive  the  love  of  God  and  his  goodness 
to  me,  the  more  was  I  humbled  and  bowed  in  my 
mind  to  serve  him,  and  to  serve  the  least  of  his 
people  among  whom  I  walked ;  and  as  the  word  of 
wisdom  began  to  spring  in  me,  and  the  word  of  Grod 
grew,  so  I  became  a  counsellor  of  those  who  were 
tempted  in  like  manner  as  I  had  been.'^  * 

In  the  year  1656  a  general  meeting  of  Friends 
was  held  at  Balby,  near  Doncaster,  which  issued 
many  important  precepts  on  subjects  connected  with 
the  good  order  and  welfare  of  the  body — such  as  the 
method  of  proceeding  with  delinquents,  and  the 
duties  of  husbands,  wives,  parents,  children,  ser- 
vants, and  masters,  justice  in  trade,  and  faithfulness 
in  the  performance  of  civil  duties.  A  similar  meet- 
ing was  held  at  Skipton,  A.  D.  1660,  "  for  the  affairs 
of  the  church,  both  in  this  nation,  and  beyond  the 
seas."  This,  indeed,  was  only  one  session  of  a  meet- 
ing established  by  the  advice  of  George  Fox,  for  the 


*  Stephen  Crisp,  Introd.  to  Book  of  Extracts,  p.  xix. 


OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS 


83 


purpose  of  caring  for  the  Society,  and  of  providing 
for  its  poor  members,  under  the  pressure  of  perse- 
cution. 

In  the  meantime,  there  were  established,  by  de- 
grees, quarterly  meetings,  ^hich  exercised  a  general 
superintendence  over  the  Friends  in  each  county; 
and,  for  a  time,  the  discipline  of  the  society  mainly 
rested  on  tliese  bodies. 

But  in  the  year  16G6,  the  form  of  our  church  go- 
vernment became  more  detailed  and  settled.  George 
Fox  says  in  his  journal  under  that  date,  "  Then  was 
I  moved  of  the  Lord  to  recommend  the  setting  up 
of  five  monthly  meetings  of  men  and  icomcn  Friends 
in  the  city  (London)  besides  the  women's  meetings 
and  the  quarterly  meetings,  to  take  care  of  God's 
glory,  and  to  admonish  and  exhort  such  as  walked 
disorderly  or  carelessly,  and  not  according  to  truth. 
For,  whereas  Friends  had  had  only  quarterly  meet- 
ings, now  truth  was  spread,  and  Friends  were  grown 
more  numerous,  I  was  moved  to  recommend  the  set- 
ting up  of  monthly  meetings  throughout  the  nation.'* 
In  1668,  he  writes  thus — "the  men's  meetings  were 
settled  throughout  the  nation.  The  c^uarterly  meet- 
ings were  generally  settled  before.  I  wrote  also  into 
Ireland,  Scotland,  Holland,  Barbadoes,  and  several 
parts  of  America,  advising  Friends  to  settle  their 
monthly  meetings  in  those  countries,  for  they  had 
their  quarterly  meetings  before." 

The  quarterly  meetings  now  received  reports  of  the 
state  of  the  Society  from  the  monthly  meetings  of 
which  they  were  severally  composed,  and  gave  such 


84  ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

directions  to  them  as  tliey  thought  right.  Finally, 
in  the  year  1678^  a  general  meeting  of  representatives 
from  the  quarterly  meetings  was  convened  in  Lon- 
don; which  received  reports  from  those  bodies,  de- 
liberated on  the  state  of  the  Society,  issued  advices 
in  the  form  of  an  epistle,  and  finally  agreed  to  meet 
again,  the  following  year,  in  like  manner.  This  re- 
presentative assembly  has  since  continued  to  meet 
every  year  in  London,  at  or  near  the  time  called 
Whitsuntide,^^  with  unbroken  regularity,  to  the  pre- 
sent date ;  and  in  it  centres  the  authority  of  disci- 
pline for  the  whole  Society  in  Great  Britain. 

The  reader  will  have  observed  that  George  Fox 
was  led  to  recommend  the  setting  up  of  womerHs 
meetings,  both  in  London  and  in  country  places. 
These  meetings,  before  very  long,  became  as  regular 
as  those  of  the  brethren ;  being  held  at  the  same  time 
with  them,  and  being  constituted  on  the  same  orderly 
system.  While  it  belonged  to  the  brethren  only  to 
form  rules  for  the  government  of  the  Society,  and 
ultimately  to  carry  them  into  efiect,  the  women's 
meetings  were  established  for  the  purpose  of  exer- 
cising a  wholesome  care  over  their  own  sex.  To  this 
object,  their  attention  was,  from  the  beginning,  ex- 
clusively directed,  as  is  the  case  in  the  present  day. 

We  do  not,  however,  forget  that  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit,  and  among  others  that  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment, are  freely  bestowed  upon  Christians  of  both 
sexes.  When,  therefore,  our  ministers  apply  to  their 
monthly  meetings  for  leave  to  travel  in  the  work  of 
the  ministry,  the  women  unite  with  the  men,  in  the 


OF    THE   SOCIETY    OF    FRIENDS.  85 

consideration  of  the  subject.  For  the  same  reason 
they,  as  well  as  the  brethren,  are  often  appointed  to 
the  station  of  elder,  in  which  capacity  it  is  their  duty 
to  watch  over  the  ministry  of  both  men  and  women. 

The  free  scope  allowed  to  women  in  the  exercise 
of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  share  assigned  to 
them  in  the  discipline  of  the  church,  are  circum- 
stances of  a  distinguishing  character,  which  have 
produced  very  beneficial  results  to  the  Society  of 
Friends.  Xot  only  have  the  Christian  care  and  coun- 
sel as  well  as  the  Gospel  ministry  of  women  been 
greatly  blessed  to  the  body  at  large ;  but  under  the 
grace  of  God,  a  more  than  common  stability  has  been 
imparted  to  the  female  character  —  this  has  wrought 
well  for  our  domestic  comfort,  for  our  temporal 
safety,  and  for  our  religious  edification. 

Previously  to  the  regular  institution  of  our  annual 
assembly,  meetings  had  been  occasionally  held  in 
London,  consisting  only  of  the  ministers  of  the  So- 
ciety, who  were  convened  from  various  parts  of  the 
country,  in  order  to  confer  on  subjects  connected 
with  their  common  cause.  These  conferences  con- 
tinued to  be  held  in  connexion  with  the  yearly  meet- 
ing; and  were  soon  joined  by  the  elders,  on  whom  it 
devolved  to  cherish  and  guard  the  ministry.  In 
process  of  time  similar  meetings  were  formed,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  quarterly  and  monthly  meetings,  in 
every  part  of  the  country,  and  they  are  still  regularly 
maintained.  Their  specific  object  is  to  exercise  a 
watchful  care  over  their  own  part  of  the  body;  and 
thev  have  been  found  of  great  use  in  assistins:  to 
8 


86 


ESSAY   ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 


secure  the  right  religious  standing,  and  the  harmo- 
nious operations,  of  those  among  us  who  are  called 
to  labour  in  the  Gospel,  or  to  watch  over  the  flock  of 
Christ.  But  the  meetings  of  ministers  and  elders 
have  no  concern  with  the  conduct  of  the  discipline; 
they  are  entirely  destitute  of  legislative  authorit3^ 

That  authority  has  uniformly  rested  with  the 
yearly  meeting  —  that  is,  with  the  body  at  large;* 
and  the  monthly  meetings  were  set  up  for  the  express 
purpose  of  carrying  the  discipline  into  effect.  They 
are  the  hands  of  the  body,  the  executors  of  the  law^ 
entrusted  with  a  parental  authority  over  their  indi- 
vidual members.  In  point  of  fact,  it  is  by  means  of 
these  subordinate  assemblies  that  the  church,  in  its 
separate  and  local  associations,  resrulates  its  own 
affairs,  and  governs  itself. 

It  cannot  be  necessary,  on  the  present  occasion,  to 
enter  at  large  into  a  view  of  the  business  which  de- 
volves on  our  montlily  meetings.  No  sooner  were 
they  regularly  established,  than  a  variety  of  objects 
came  under  their  attention ;  the  care  of  the  poor,  the 
protection  and  assistance  of  the  afflicted  and  im- 
prisoned, the  Christian  and  orderly  conducting  of 
marriages  and  burials,  the  registration  of  births  and 
deaths,  the  education  of  children,  the  settlement  of 
differences  to  the  exclusion  of  legal  proceedings,  were 
all  of  them  subjects  which  claimed  the  attention  of 

*  The  Yearlj"-  Meeting,  like  our  other  meetings  for  disci- 
pline, although,  strictly  speaking,  composed  of  representa- 
tives, is  open  to  any  members  of  the  Society  —  of  course, 
the  men  and  women  being  convened  separately. 


OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


87 


tliese  executive  bodies,  and  -^liich  continue  to  do  so 
to  tlie  present  day. 

By  far  the  most  important  of  their  functions,  how- 
ever, is  the  spiritual  care  of  their  individual  mem- 
bers. This  care  is  especially  called  forth  by  certain 
enquiries,  respecting  the  moral  and  religious  state  of 
the  body,  which  are  answered  periodically  for  the  in- 
formation of  the  quarterly  meetings."^  Each  little 
church  among  us  is  thus  brought,  at  certain  periods, 
to  a  deliberate  view  of  the  condition  of  its  members, 
and  advice  is  often  extended  as  occasion  may  require. f 

^  The  monthly  meetings  constitute  the  lowest  class  of  our 
meetings  for  the  discipline  of  the  church.  A  single  monthly 
meeting,  however,  often  comprehends  two  or  more  "pre- 
parative meetings,"  which  severally  draw  up  answers  to 
these  enqxiiries.  The  answers  of  the  monthly  meeting  it- 
self, are  formed  frOm  those  of  its  preparative  meetings, 

f  These  enquiries  are  as  follows : — 

I.  Are  meetings  for  worship  and  discipline  kept  up,  and 
do  Friends  attend  them  duly,  and  at  the  time  appointed; 
and  do  they  avoid  all  unbecoming  behaviour  therein? 

II.  Is  there  among  you  any  growth  in  the  Truth  ? 

III.  Are  Friends  preserved  in  love  one  toward  another; 
if  differences  arise,  is  due  care  taken  speedily  to  end  them; 
and  are  Friends  careful  to  avoid  and  discourage  talebearing 
and  detraction? 

IV.  Do  Fi-iends  endeavour  by  example  and  precept  to  train 
up  their  children,  servants,  and  those  under  their  care,  in  a  re- 
ligious life  and  conversation,  consistent  with  our  Christian 
profession ;  and  in  plainness  of  speech,  behaviour,  and 
apparel  ? 

V.  Is  it  the  care  of  all  Friends  to  be  frequent  in  reading 
the  Holy  Scriptui-es,  and  do  those  who  have  children,  ser- 
vants, and  others  under  their  care,  train  them  up  in  the 
practice  of  this  religious  duty  ? 


88 


ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 


Again,  wlien  cases  occur  of  breaclies  of  morality^  or 
of  a  departure  from  our  more  important  Christian 
testimonies,  it  is  the  monthly  meeting  which  must 
uldmateli/ sit  in  judgment  on  the  transgressor;  and 

VI.  Are  Friends  just  in  their  dealings,  and  punctual  in 
fulfilling  their  engagements  ? 

VII.  Do  Friends  avoid  all  vain  sports  and  places  of  diver- 
sion, gaming,  all  unnecessary  frequenting  of  taverns  and 
other  public-houses,  excess  in  drinking,  and  other  intem- 
perance ? 

VIII.  Are  Friends  faithful  in  bearing  our  Christian  testi- 
mony against  receiving  and  paying  tithes,  priests'  demands, 
and  those  called  church-rates  ? 

IX.  Are  Friends  faithful  in  our  testimony  against  bear- 
ing arms,  and  being  in  any  manner  concerned  in  the  militia, 
in  privateers,  or  armed  vessels,  or  dealing  in  prize-goods  ? 

X.  Are  the  necessities  of  the  poor  among  you  properly 
inspected  and  relieved;  and  is  good  care  taken  of  the  edu- 
cation of  their  offspring? 

XI.  Is  due  care  taken,  when  any  thing  appears  to  require 
it,  that  the  rules  of  our  discipline  be  timely  and  impartially 
put  in  practice  ? 

XII.  Is  there  any  appearance  of  convincement  among  you, 
and  have  any  been  joined  to  our  society  on  that  ground 
since  last  year  ? 

XIII.  Is  care  taken  early  to  a&lmonish  such  as  appear  in- 
clined to  marry  in  a  manner  contrary  to  the  rules  of  our  so- 
ciety ;  and  in  due  time  to  deal  with  such  as  persist  in  re- 
fusing to  take  counsel  ? 

XIV.  Have  you  two  or  more  faithful  friends,  appointed 
by  the  monthly  meeting,  as  overseers  in  each  particular 
meeting ;  are  the  rules  respecting  removals  duly  observed ; 
are  the  general  advices  read  as  directed ;  and  are  the  lists 
of  your  members  revised  and  corrected  once  in  the  year  ? 

XV.  Are  Friends  annually  advised  to  keep  correct  and 


OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS. 


89 


either  pass  over  the  fault  on  receiving  proofs  of  re- 
pentance, or  separate  him,  for  a  season  at  least,  from 
his  fellowship  with  the  body. 

It  is  not  without  meaning  that  a  stress  is  here 

clear  accounts,  and  carefully  to  inspect  the  state  of  their 
affairs  once  in  the  year  ? 

XVI.  Are  Friends  clear  of  defrauding  the  king  of  his  cus- 
toms, duties,  and  excise,  and  of  using  or  dealing  in  goods 
suspected  to  be  run  ? 

XVn.  Do  you  keep  a  record  of  the  prosecutions  and  suf- 
ferings of  your  members  ;  is  due  care  taken  to  register  all 
marriages,  births,  and  burials ;  are  the  titles  of  yom-  meet- 
ing-houses, burial-grounds,  &c.,  duly  preserved  and  re- 
corded ;  are  the  rules  respecting  registers  and  trust-pro- 
perty observed ;  and  are  all  legacies  and  donations  properly 
secured  and  recorded  and  duly  applied  ? 

The  following  advices  of  the  yearly  meeting  are  read,  at 
least  once  in  the  year,  in  the  quarterly,  monthly,  and  pre- 
parative meetings  of  men  and  women  Friends  ;  they  are  to 
be  read  in  the  men's  and  women's  meetings  separately: — 

Take  heed,  dear  friends,  we  entreat  you,  to  the  convic- 
tions of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  leads,  through  unfeigned  re- 
pentance and  living  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  to  reconcilia- 
tion with  our  Heavenly  Father,  and  to  the  blessed  hope  of 
eternal  life,  purchased  for  us  by  the  one  sufferifig  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

Be  earnestly  concerned  in  religious  meetings  reverently 
to  present  yourselves  before  the  Lord,  and  seek,  by  the  help 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  worship  God  through  Jesus  Christ. 

Be  in  the  frequent  practice  of  waiting  upon  God  in  pri- 
vate retirement  with  prayer  and  supplication,  honestly  ex- 
amining yourselves  as  to  your  growth  in  grace,  and  your 
preparation  for  the  life  to  come. 

Be  careful  to  make  a  profitable  and  religious  use  of  those 
8* 


90 


ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 


laid  on  tlie  word  ultimately  ;  for  Friends  have  always 
upheld  the  importance  of  the  preceding  steps,  which 
ought,  if  possible,  to  take  place  in  dealing  with  de- 
linquents.  The  first  of  these  is  private  admonitioyi — 

portions  of  time  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  are  not 
occupied  by  our  meetings  for  worship. 

Live  in  love  as  Christian  brethren,  ready  to  be  helpful  one 
to  another,  and  to  sympathize  with  each  other  in  the  trials 
and  afflictions  of  life. 

Follow  peace  with  all  men,  desiring  the  true  happiness  of 
all;  and  be  liberal  to  the  poor,  endeavouring  to  promote 
their  temporal,  moral,  and  religious  well-being. 

With  a  tender  conscience,  and  in  accordance  with  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Gospel,  take  heed  to  the  limitations  of  the  Spirit 
of  Truth,  in  the  pursuit  of  the  things  of  this  life. 

Maintain  strict  integrity  in  all  your  transactions  in  trade, 
and  in  your  other  outward  concerns,  remembering  that  you 
will  have  to  account  for  the  mode  of  acquiring,  and  the 
manner  of  using,  your  possessions. 

Watch,  with  Christian  tenderness,  over  the  opening  minds 
of  your  oifspring ;  inure  them  to  habits  of  self-restraint  and 
filial  obedience ;  carefully  instruct  them  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  seek  for  ability  to  imbue  their 
minds  with  the  love  of  their  Heavenly  Father,  their  Re- 
deemer, and  their  Sanctitier. 

Observe  simplicity  and  moderation  in  the  furniture  of 
your  houses,  and  in  the  supply  of  your  tables,  as  well  as  in 
your  personal  attire,  and  that  of  your  families. 

Be  diligent  in  the  private  and  daily  family  reading  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures :  and  guard  carefully  against  the  introduc- 
tion of  improper  books  into  your  families. 

Be  careful  to  place  out  children,  of  all  degrees,  with  those 
Friends  whose  care  and  example  will  be  most  likely  to  con- 
duce to  their  preservation  from  evil ;  prefer  such  assistants, 
servants,  and  apprentices,  as  are  members  of  our  religious 


OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF  FRIENDS. 


91 


"  If  thy  brother  shall  trespass  against  thee,  go  and 
tell  him  his  fault  between  thee  and  him  alone  ;  if  he 
hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy  brother !" 

"  Admonish  a  friend/'  said  the  son  of  Sirach,  "  it 
may  be  that  he  hath  not  done  it ;  and  if  he  have 
done  it,  that  he  do  it  no  more.  Admonish  a  friend, 
it  may  be  that  he  hath  not  said  it,  and  if  he  have, 
that  he  speak  it  not  again.  Admonish  a  friend,  for 
many  times  it  is  a  slander,  and  believe  not  every 
tale."  *  The  views  of  this  wise,  though  apociyphal 
writer,  are  coincident  with  those  which  our  Society 
has  always  endeavoured  to  maintain.  "We  consider 
it  to  be  our  individual  duty  to  communicate  in  private 

society ;  not  demanding  exorbitant  apprentice  fees,  lest  you 
frustrate  tlie  care  of  Friends  in  these  respects. 

Encourage  your  apprentices  and  servants  of  all  descrip- 
tions to  attend  public  worship,  making  -^ay  for  them  herein : 
and  exercise  a  watchful  care  for  their  moral  and  religious 
improvement. 

Be  careful  to  make  your  wills  and  settle  your  outward 
affairs  in  time  of  health  ;  and,  when  you  accept  the  office 
of  guardian,  executor,  or  trustee,  be  faithful  and  diligent  in 
the  fulfilment  of  your  trust. 

Finally,  dear  Friends,  let  your  conversation  be  such  as 
becometh  the  Gospel.  Exercise  yourselves  to  have  always 
a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and  toward  man. 
Watch  over  one  another  for  good ;  and  when  occasions  of 
uneasiness  first  appear  in  any,  let  them  be  treated  with  pri- 
vacy and  tenderness,  before  the  matter  be  communicated  to 
another;  and  Friends,  every  where,  are  advised  to  maintain 
"the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace."  — 1791. — 
1801.— 1833. 


*  Eccles.  xix.  13-15. 


92  ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

■with  a  supposed  offender,  before  we  mention  his 
fault  to  a  third  person.  If  we  then  find  that  it  has 
not  been  committed,  our  care  on  his  account  is  re- 
moved. If,  on  the  contrary,  he  is  guilty  of  it,  our 
own  adherence  to  an  honourable  secrecy  may  greatly 
increase  the  efficacy  of  our  endeavours  to  restore  him 
to  the  right  way. 

But  important  as  is  the  individual  duty  of  private 
admonition,  it  affords  no  pretext  for  the  absence,  in 
any  church,  of  an  official  overseership.  It  is  an  es- 
sential part  of  our  system  of  discipline,  that  as  far  as 
circumstances  will  allow,  ^'  two  or  more  faithful 
friends "  should  be  appointed  to  this  office  in  each 
meeting.  The  proper  business  of  these  persons  is 
to  exercise  a. godly  care  over  all  the  members  of  the 
body;  to  watch  against  occasions  of  offence,  to  settle 
disputes,  and  to  endeavour  to  reclaim  delinquents, 
when  the  evil  first  appears ;  to  strengthen  the  weak, 
to  rebuke  the  gainsayers;  to  reprove  the  careless; 
and  to  maintain,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  that 
purity  and  harmony  in  the  body,  which  best  adorn 
our  Christian  profession.  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten, 
that  those  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  raises  up  to  be 
overseers  in  the  church,  ought  not  only  to  show,  but 
to  lead  the  way  —  to  be  examples  to  the  flock  in 
all  holy  conversation  and  godliness." 

I  conceive  that  the  elders  and  overseers  in  our 
meetings  —  did  they  fully  occupy  the  place  assigned 
to  them  —  would  very  nearly  correspond  in  point  of 
authority  and  function,  with  the  same  officers  in  the 
primitive  church.    And  it  is  no  less  clear  that  it  is 


or   THE    SOCIETY    OF    FRIENDS.  93 

the  Christian  duty  of  the  younger  and  less  expe- 
rienced members  of  the  body,  to  render  to  them  a 
ready  deference  and  obedience,  as  to  those  who  watch 
over  their  souls,  and  must  give  an  account  of  their 
stewardship.  "  Likewise,  ye  younger,  submit  your- 
selves unto  the  elder.  Yea,  all  of  you,  be  subject 
one  to  another,  and  be  clothed  icith  humility ;  for 
God  resisteth  the  proud,  and  giveth  grace  to  the 
humble."  * 

In  communicating  with  a  brother  who  has  been 
"  overtaken  in  a  fault,"  it  will  ever  be  the  first  en- 
deavour of  the  truly  Christian  overseer,  to  restore 
such  an  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness."  "  The  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord  must  not  strive,  but  be  gentle  unto 
all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient,  in  meekness  instruct- 
ing those  that  oppose  themselves,  if  God  peradven- 
ture  will  give  them  repentance  to  the  acknowledging 
of  the  truth  •  and  that  they  nmy  recover  themselves  out 
of  the  snare  of  the  devil,  who  are  taken  captive  by 
him  at  his  will."  f 

Nor  ought  the  effort  of  the  church,  to  reclaim  her 
wandering  members,  to  end  with  the  kindly  offices 
of  the  overseers.  "When  the  third  step  commanded 
by  oiir  Saviour  has  been  taken,  and  the  collective 
body  is  informed  of  the  oflPender's  fault,  repeated 
visits  should  be  made  to  him  by  persons  selected  for 
the  purpose,  and  every  endeavour  used  to  bring  him 
to  repentance.  Such,  I  trust,  is  the  usual  practice 
of  our  monthly  meetings.    Yet  I  believe  there  is 


*  1  Peter  v.  6. 


f  2  Tim.  ii.  21-26. 


94 


ESSAY   ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 


often  a  danger  lest  our  care  over  transgressors  should 
cease  after  disownment  has  taken  place.  Where  there 
is  any  love  for  the  truth  in  the  disowned  party,  or 
any  open  door  for  continued  efforts  on  his  account, 
his  separation  from  the  body  ought  surely  to  be  re- 
garded as  merely  temporary ;  and  it  is  our  bounden 
duty,  with  all  diligence  and  prayer,  to  seek  his  re- 
storation. Sufficient  to  such  a  man,"  said  the 
apostle  Paul  on  an  occasion  of  this  kind,  is  this 
punishment  which  was  inflicted  of  many.  So  that, 
contrariwise,  ye  ought  rather  to  forgive  him,  and 
comfort  him,  lest,  perhaps,  such  an  one  should  be 
swallowed  up  of  overmuch  sorrow.'^  *  To  conduct 
our  discipline  with  impartiality  and  vigour,  and 
steadily  to  maintain  its  integrity,  is  indeed  of  essen- 
tial importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  body.  Yet  the 
main  characteristic  of  Christian  discipline  is  love  — 
that  love  which  seeks,  above  all  things,  the  salvation 
of  sinners. f 

2  Cor.  ii.  6-8. 

f  The  spirit  of  tenderness,  which  breathes  through  the 
instructions  of  George  Fox,  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of 
delinquents,  is  worthy  of  especial  notice,  and  would,  if  there 
were  no  other,  afford  ample  evidence  of  the  soundness  of 
his  Christian  character.  In  one  of  his  earl}'  epistles  he  thus 
writes:  "Now,  concerning  Gospel  order,  though  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  Christ  requireth  his  people  to  admonish  a 
brother  or  sister  twice,  before  they  tell  the  church,  yet  that 
limiteth  none,  so  as  that  they  shall  use  no  longer  forbear- 
ance. And  it  is  desired  of  all,  before  they  publicly  com- 
plain, that  they  wait  in  the  power  of  God,  to  feel  if  there 
is  no  more  required  of  them  to  their  brother  or  sister,  before 


OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    FRIEXDS.  95 


Although  the  executiTe  authority  rests  only  -^ith  our 
monthly  meetings,  provision  is  made  for  their  help  on 
occasions  -which  require  it.  Thus,  'when  ministers 
receive  certificates  to  travel  beyond  the  seas,  the  au- 
thority of  the  monthly  meeting  must  be  confirmed 

they  expose  him  or  her  to  the  church.  Let  this  be  -vreightily 
considered,  and  all  such  as  behoki  their  brother  or  sister  in 
a  transgression,  go  not  in  a  rough,  light,  or  upbraiding 
spirit,  to  reprove  or  admonish  him  or  her ;  but  in  the  power 
of  the  Lord  and  spirit  of  the  Lamb,  and  in  the  wisdom  and 
love  of  the  Truth,  which  sulFers  thereby,  to  admonish  such 
an  offender.  So  may  the  soul  of  such  a  brother  or  sister  be 
seasonably  and  effectually  reached  unto  and  overcome,  and 
they  may  have  cause  to  bless  the  name  of  the  Lord  on  their 
behalf,  and  so  a  blessing  may  be  rewarded  into  the  bosom 
of  that  faithful  and  tender  brother  or  sister  who  so  ad- 
monished them.  And  so  keep  the  church  order  of  the  Gos- 
pel, according  as  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  commanded ; 
that  is  '  If  thy  brother  offend  thee,  speak  to  him  betwixt 
thee  and  him  alone ;  and  if  he  Trill  not  hear,  take  two  or 
three,  and  if  he  will  not  hear  two  or  three,  then  tell  it  to 
the  church.'  And  if  any  one  do  miscarry,  admonish  them 
gently  in  the  -wisdom  of  God,  so  that  you  may  preserve  him 
and  bring  him  to  condemnation,  and  preserve  him  from  fur- 
ther evils,  -which  it  is  well  if  such  do  not  run  into,  and  it  will 
be  -well  for  all  to  use  the  gentle  -wisdom  of  God  toward  them 
in  their  temptations,  and  condemnable  actions :  and,  -with 
using  gentleness,  to  bring  them  to  condemn  their  evil,  and 
to  let  their  condemnation  go  as  far  as  their  bad  action  has 
gone  and  no  farther,  to  defile  the  minds  of  Friends  or  others ; 
and  so  to  clear  God's  truth  and  people,  and  to  convert  the 
soul  to  God,  and  preserve  them  out  of  further  evils. — So  be 
wise  in  the  wisdom  of  God."  See  Introduction  to  the  last 
edition  of  the  Book  of  Extracts. 


96  ESSAY  ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 

by  that  of  the  quarterly  meeting,  before  they  are  at 
liberty  to  proceed.*  Again  when  elders  are  to  be 
nominated,  the  quarterly  meeting  appoints  a  commit- 
tee, to  assist  a  committee  of  the  monthly  meeting,  in 
proposing  names  for  the  consideration  of  the  latter 
body.  In  general,  it  devolves  on  the  quarterly  meet- 
ings f  to  extend  help,  as  required,  either  by  advice  or 
deputation,  to  their  subordinate  bodies;  and  of  this 
duty  they  are,  from  time  to  time,  reminded  by  the 
following  enquiry  : — "  Are  you  careful  to  give  to  your 
monthly  meetings  that  assistance  which  your  place  in 
the  body  and  their  state  require 

This  enquiry,  together  with  twelve  of  those  whicb 
are  answered  by  the  monthly  to  the  quarterly  meet- 
ings, are  answered  by  the  quarterly  meeting  to  our 
annual  assembly,  which  is  thus  enabled  to  form  a  cor- 
rect view  of  the  state  of  the  society.  The  care  of 
the  yearly  meeting  itself  over  the  society  seldom  fails 
to  be  evinced,  by  written  advices,  as  well  as  by  a 
printed  general  epistle;  and  when  any  quarterly 
meeting,  under  circumstances  of  trial  and  difficulty, 
applies  for  assistance,  a  deputation  is,  for  the  most 

^  When  a  minister  from  England  is  about  to  visit  Ireland, 
this  rule  is  not  imperative.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the 
service  which  he  has  in  view,  lies  in  foreign  parts,  he  must 
obtain  the  sanction  of  the  yearly  meeting  of  ministers  and 
elders,  or  of  its  subordinate  body  (called  the  morning  meet- 
ing) as  well  as  that  of  his  monthly  and  quarterly  meetings. 

•j-  In  some  parts  of  the  kingdom  the  meetings  answering 
to  the  quarterly  meetings  are  held  only  three  times,  and  in 
Scotland  only  twice  in  the  year. 


OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF   FRIENDS.  97 


part,  appointed  for  tte  purpose.  Occasionally,  in- 
deed, the  yearly  meeting  has  set  apart  a  large  com- 
mittee, for  a  general  visit  in  Christian  love  to  all  its 
inferior  meetings ;  and  many  can  testify  that  these 
labours  of  love  have  been  blessed  both  to  those  who 
paid  the  visits,  and  to  those  who  received  them. 

There  exists,  moreover,  a  standing  committee  of 
the  yearly  meeting,  consisting  of  numerous  friends 
of  London  and  its  vicinity,  and  of  correspondents  in 
the  country,  which  sits  at  least  once  a  month,  during 
the  intervals  between  one  yearly  meeting  and  an- 
other. It  is  the  duty  of  this  important  body — called 
"  the  meeting  for  sufferings  " — to  extend  advice  and 
assistance  to  the  Society,  or  to  any  part  of  it,  under 
the  exigencies  which  may  arise ;  to  provide  supplies 
of  the  standard  books  of  Friends ;  to  watch  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  legislature,  as  far  as  they  affect  the 
Society  j  to  exercise  a  friendly  care  over  ministers 
who  are  travelling  abroad ;  to  correspond  with  Friends 
in  foreign  parts;  and  to  protect  the  interests  of  the 
body  at  large. 

Thus  is  our  little  church  assisted  and  edified, 
under  the  cherishing  hand  of  our  Holy  Redeemer, 
by  the  mutual  care  and  sympathy  of  its  component 
parts. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  reflect  on  the  unbroken  regu- 
larity with  which  the  system  now  detailed  has  been 
maintained  in  our  Society,  for  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  from  year  to  year,  and  from  generation  to 
generation,  Friends  have  kept  up  their  monthly, 
9  G 


98 


ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 


quarterly,  and  yearly  meetings,  and  have  never  found 
occasion  materially  to  alter  the  plan  so  "wisely  laid 
down  for  them  by  their  predecessors.  -This  plan  has 
been,  from  the  beginning,  remarkable  for  that  sim- 
plicity on  the  one  hand,  and  that  precision  on  the 
other,  which,  under  Providence,  could  alone  insure 
its  usefulness  and  stability ;  and  it  affords  a  clear  evi- 
dence that  there  was  nothing  in  the  religious  views 
of  the  early  Quakers,  opposed  to  the  principles  of 
Christian  order.  Some  persons,  indeed,  there  were, 
under  our  name,  of  a  wild  and  ungoverned  spirit, 
who  refused  to  submit  to  these  wholesome  provisions ; 
but,  by  the  Society  at  large,  they  were  embraced  with 
gladness,  and  have  ever  since  been  found  easy  to 
apply,  and  salutary  in  their  operations. 

While  we  cannot  reasonably  doubt,  that,  in  con- 
structing this  plan,  George  Fox  and  his  coadjutors 
were  favoured  with  the  gracious  aid  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  it  is  probable  that  their  attention  was  closely 
fixed  on  the  pattern  of  discipline  presented  to  them 
in  the  New  Testament.  Their  system  was  indeed 
more  developed  than  that  of  the  primitive  believers 
is  known  to  have  been,  especially  as  it  regards  the 
subordination  of  one  class  of  meetings  to  another; 
but  with  regard  to  main  principles,  as  well  as  in 
many  distinct  particulars,  the  views  and  practices  of 
Friends,  with  respect  to  church  order,  appear  to  be 
the  same  as  those  of  the  primitive  Christians. 

The  acknowledgment  of  Christ  as  the  only  Head 
and  Priest  of  his  people — the  direct  dependence  upon 
him  as  the  present  Ruler  of  the  church — the  divine 


OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF  FRIENDS 


99 


origin  of  the  gift  of  the  ministry,  and  the  absence 
of  all  human  restriction,  as  to  the  person  Tvho  might 
exercise  it — the  voluntary  support  of  the  poor — the 
appointment,  in  every  church,  of  deacons  to  manage 
the  funds  raised  for  that  purpose,  and  of  elders  and 
overseers  to  watch  over  the  flock  of  Christ;  all  being 
distinct,  in  their  official  characters,  from  the  pro- 
phets or  preachers  —  the  settlement  of  disputes,  not 
before  the  magistrates  of  the  land,  but  by  the  arbi- 
tration of  brethren — the  private  admonition  of  offend- 
ers as  the  first  step  in  discipline — the  care  extended 
over  women  by  overseers  of  their  own  sex — the  select 
conferences  of  preachers  and  elders — the  making  of 
rules,  the  choosing  of  officers,  the  disownment  and 
restoration  of  offenders,  by  the  assembled  believers — 
are  points  which  distinguish  the  simple  religious 
polity  of  the  earliest  Christians  :  and  all  these  points 
are  steadily  maintained  in  the  Society  of  Friends. 

In  conclusion,  however,  there  are  two  subjects  con- 
nected with  our  view  of  church-government,  which 
appear  to  claim  especial  notice.  The  first  is  the  ab- 
sence of  all  ecclesiastical  domination,  or  of  any  dis- 
tinction between  a  priesthood  in  power,  and  a  laity  in 
subjection.  No  such  distinction  appears  to  have 
been  known  among  the  immediate  followers  of  Christ, 
or  in  the  first  and  purest  age  of  the  churches  which 
they  planted — and  none  such  exists  among  ourselves. 
Our  views  on  this  point  are  indeed  by  no  means  op- 
posed to  the  just  influence  of  the  most  experienced 
members  of  the  church,  or  to  the  proper  authority 
of  appointed  overseers ;  but  we  consider  ourselves  to 


100        ESSAY   ON   THE  DISCIPLINE 

be  brethren,  possessed  of  equal  rights ;  and  we  con- 
ceive it  to  be  the  duty  and  privilege  of  the  church, 
to  conduct  its  own  affairs,  and  govern  itself.  And 
here  there  is  no  place,  on  the  part  of  individuals,  for 
a  proud  independence,  or  impatience  of  restraint; 
because,  as  far  as  Christian  discipline  extends,  every 
single  member  is  controlled  and  governed  by  the 
body  at  large. 

Now  it  is  very  obvious,  as  has  been  already  ob- 
served, that  such  a  form  of  church-government  can  be 
safe  and  salutary,  only  while  we  maintain  a  still  higher 
principle  —  that  of  the  supremacy  and  perpetual  su- 
perintendence of  Christ  himself.  This  is  a  doctrine 
on  which  Friends  have  at  all  times  delighted  to  dwell. 
Often  have  they  been  led  to  call  to  mind  the  glowing 
words  of  the  prophet — "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto 
us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall  he  upon 
his  shoulder,  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful, 
Counsellor,  the  Mighty  God  3'"^  —  often  have  they 
found  occasion  to  recur  to  the  doctrine  of  the  apostle, 
that  God  hath  put  "all  things''  under  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  and  "  given  him  to  be  Head  over  all  things  to 
the  church."  f 

"What  then  is  the  agency  by  which  Christ  conducts 
his  reign,  and  orders  the  affairs  of  his  universal 
people  ?  Scripture  and  experience  alike  declare  that 
it  is  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  by  his 
Spirit  that  he  brings  his  children  into  subjection  to 
his  will,  qualifies  them  for  their  respective  offices  in 


*  Isa.  ix.  6. 


t  Eph.  i.  22. 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  101 

the  body,  and  guides  them  individually  and  collec- 
tively, in  their  course  of  duty. 

The  second  point  to  which  I  was  anxious  to  allude 
is  this — the  belief  of  Friends,  that  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every  man  to  profit 
withal;  and  that  the  living  members  of  the  church, 
in  their  endeavours  to  promote  the  religious  welfare 
of  others,  will  not  fail  to  receive,  as  they  humbly  seek 
it,  his  gracious  aid  and  guidance.  Whether  in  such 
endeavours,  we  act  as  private  individuals,  or  in  the 
official  character  of  overseers  of  the  flock,  it  is  still 
in  dependence  on  our  Divine  Master,  and  in  obe- 
dience to  the  government  of  his  Spirit,  that  our 
duties  ought  to  be  performed.  "We  believe  that  it  is 
thus,  and  thus  only,  that  we  can  with  confidence 
offer  up  the  prayer  of  the  Psalmist,  Establish  thou 
the  work  of  our  hands  upon  us ;  yea  the  work  of  our 
hands  establish  thou  it." 

But  further  —  when  Christians  meet  in  their  cor- 
porate capacity,  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the 
affairs  of  the  church,  and  of  promoting  the  cause  of 
religion,  Christ  is  their  rightful  president.  And  it  is 
our  firm  belief,  that  as  they  reverently  wait  upon  him, 
they  will  find  him  present  to  assist  their  deliberations, 
to  prompt  their  efforts,  and  to  direct  their  decisions. 

That  such  was  the  happy  experience  of  the  primi- 
tive believers  has  already  been  shown  from  Scripture ; 
and  there  is  surely  no  good  reason  why  Christians, 
in  the  present  day,  did  they  fully  rely  on  God, 


9* 


*  Ps.  xc.  17. 


102        ESSAY    ON    THE  DISCIPLINE 

should  not  enjoy  a  sufficient  measure  of  tlie  same 
blessed  privilege. 

We,  therefore,  consider  it  to  be  our  duty  to  con- 
duct all  our  meetings  for  discipline,  with  immediate 
reference  to  the  government  of  Christ  and  to  the 
guidance  of  his  Spirit.  Whether  we  are  engaged  in 
appointing  officers ;  in  acknowledging  ministers ;  in 
deliberating  on  their  prospects  of  service ;  in  admit- 
ting members ;  in  dealing  with  delinquents ;  in  ex- 
tending advice  to  subordinate  meetings ;  or  in  dis- 
cussing propositions  made  with  a  view  to  the  welfare 
of  the  body — whatever  subject,  indeed,  connected 
with  religion  and  morality  may  occupy  our  attention 
— we  believe  it  to  be  right,  humbly  to  wait  for  divine 
direction,  and  to  yield  to  that  judgment,  on  the  sub- 
ject before  us,  which  appears  to  be  most  consistent 
with  the  mind  of  Christ. 

On  the  general  maxim,  that  of  every  question 
which  can  arise  in  the  church,  there  must  be  some 
riglit  conclusion,  and  in  the  further  belief,  that  as 
they  diligently  seek  his  counsel,  Christ  will  lead  his 
dependent  fpllowers  into  that  conclusion,  we  admit, 
in  our  meetings  for  discipline,  of  no  division  of  mem- 
bers—  of  no  settlement  of  any  point  by  majority. 
Neither  have  these  assemblies,  any  more  than  our 
meetings  for  worship,  a  human  president.  The  clerk 
collects  and  records  the  judgment  of  his  brethren, 
and  it  is  his  duty,  during  the  course  of  every  discus- 
sion, to  take  care  that  proper  order  be  preserved. 
But  he  has  no  personal  authority  over  the  assembly 


OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANS.  103 

— ^no  power  to  put  any  subject  to  tlie  vote — no  cast- 
ing vote  of  his  own. 

That  this  is  a  principle  worthy  of  our  Christian 
profession,  and  eminently  conducive  to  the  welfare 
of  the  church,  cannot  with  any  reason  be  denied ; 
and  although  its  full  effect  may  often  be  prevented  by 
the  infirmity  of  our  nature,  we  are  bound  to  acknow- 
ledge that  it  works  well  in  practice.  I  am  not  aware 
that  a  single  instance  has  occurred  in  this  country, 
of  the  settlement  of  any  question  in  a  meeting  for 
discipline  —  monthly,  quarterly,  or  yearly  —  by  the 
division  of  its  members.  Have  we  not  then  much 
cause  for  thankfulness  to  Him  who  raised  up  our 
forefathers  by  his  power,  that  he  still  condescends 
to  preserve  us,  as  a  people,  in  some  degree  of  prac- 
tical dependence  on  his  own  authority;  that  he  still 
brings  us,  from  time  to  time,  into  the  same  judg- 
ment; that  he  still  enables  us,  when  our  opinions 
differ,  to  condescend  one  to  another  in  love  ? 

Certain  it  is,  that  the  more  we  are  weaned  from 
the  eagerness  of  the  carnal  mind,  and  brought  to 
wait  patiently  on  the  Lord,  the  better  we  shall  be 
prepared  to  receive  and  follow  his  counsel;  the  more 
eminently  we  shall  enjoy  the  unity  of  the  spirit, 

IN  THE  BOND  OF  PEACE. 


THE  END. 


Date  Due 


FACULTV 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

*  ■ 


